The long road to semantic interoperability in support of public health: Experiences from two states

Abstract

Proliferation of health information technologies creates opportunities to improve clinical and public health, including high quality, safer care and lower costs. To maximize such potential benefits, health information technologies must readily and reliably exchange information with other systems. However, evidence from public health surveillance programs in two states suggests that operational clinical information systems often fail to use available standards, a barrier to semantic interoperability. Furthermore, analysis of existing policies incentivizing semantic interoperability suggests they have limited impact and are fragmented. In this essay, we discuss three approaches for increasing semantic interoperability to support national goals for using health information technologies. A clear, comprehensive strategy requiring collaborative efforts by clinical and public health stakeholders is suggested as a guide for the long road towards better population health data and outcomes.

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Persistent Use: A Technical Plan to Achieve Semantic Interoperability within Electronic Health Record Systems

“…While these solutions facilitated some interoperability functionality, they were proven to be limited and not scalable enough to allow for the application of new scenarios thus hindering the effective achievement of a broader scope of semantic interoperability [7]. Further, many researchers still claims that semantic interoperability within the healthcare sector has yet to be fully accomplished even with the implementation of the existing systems [9], [16], [22], [37], [47].…”

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Persistent Use: A Technical Plan to Achieve Semantic Interoperability within Electronic Health Record Systems

“…While these solutions facilitated some interoperability functionality, they were proven to be limited and not scalable enough to allow for the application of new scenarios thus hindering the effective achievement of a broader scope of semantic interoperability [6]. Further, many researchers still claim that semantic interoperability within the healthcare sector has yet to be fully accomplished even with the implementation of the existing systems [8], [15], [18], [31], [42].…”

Interoperability : - capability to interoperate in a shared work practice using information infrastructures

“…1 See for example a study [14] in US on the use of standard vocabularies in electronic laboratory reports in two states. This study showed that very few of the reports were using the mature and internationally recognized standard vocabularies LOINC and SNOMED CT.…”

“…The experience of achieving interoperability is that there is not one single solution to the challenges. [21,25] Additional complexity comes with the interaction between organizations using information systems.1 See for example a study [14] in US on the use of standard vocabularies in electronic laboratory reports in two states. This study showed that very few of the reports were using the mature and internationally recognized standard vocabularies LOINC and SNOMED CT.…”

“…In order to account for the interaction between the producer and the client, additional models have 13 It is also essential for information infrastructures, for its development and sustainability. 14 We will return to the question about the relation between process/work practice and infrastructure below. [74,75].…”