Interoperability

Interoperability describes the capacity different systems, products, or vendors have to interact with each other. Perfectly interoperable systems can exchange and interpret information with complete freedom. The term most commonly applies to information technology, computer systems, and computer programs, but it can also refer to different organizations, such as law enforcement. The medical industry, government programs, and software development are sectors that place emphasis on interoperability.

Achieving interoperability requires a few different factors. Sufficient technology needs to be in place to make it feasible. There also need to be standards that are easily recognizable and usable to different system developers. Economic considerations are also important. Often, particular systems are tied up by copyright or licensing agreements, preventing developers from settling on a single standard. Business process interoperability (BPI) is a specific type of interoperability designed to improve workloads and projects. It focuses on automating work as much as possible and only involving live decisions when necessary.

Background

The spread of interoperability is tied closely with the development of the Internet, which greatly improved the capacity for people to communicate and exchange data over long distances. At first, the Internet was primarily used by governments and academics. In 1989, the creation of the World Wide Web made the Internet far more accessible to average civilians. With a wide range of people with different needs and interests online, and personal computers becoming much more common, a wider variety of both computers and software emerged. Whether these different systems could share data with each other became a concern for businesses, academics, the government, and consumers alike.

As computers became a more common resource for storing and sending information in the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first, the health industry took a particular interest in interoperability. Proponents argued that interoperability would help medical research advance much more efficiently, while also improving day-to-day operations and drastically cutting costs at hospitals. However, with different developers eager for their products to stand out from others, licensing and trademark issues often interfered with free information exchange.

The Human Genome Project demonstrated some of the benefits of interoperability. This project began in 1990 as an effort to map the sequences of genetic code that make up human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and involved collaboration on a global scale. In 1996, conflict over the patent rights of findings arose, and the project leaders met to discuss how to avoid these issues in the future. They established that all project participants must agree to share all findings and data with all other laboratories within twenty-four hours of discovery. This decision led to accelerated progress, and the project was considered completed in 2003.

The success of the Human Genome Project helped bring about Creative Commons, an organization dedicated to licensing works so that they are readily accessible while protecting the creators' interests. It was a high-profile case of information exchange being prioritized over licensing restrictions, but it largely applied to published materials. Demand for interoperable systems for the exchange of information significantly increased into the twenty-first century.

Overview

Interoperability can be categorized into three different levels: foundational, structural, and semantic. Foundational refers to systems that can transfer data from one system to another. However, the data may arrive in a different format and need to be reinterpreted on the receiving end. The structural level describes a system that can transfer data without need for reinterpretation. At the semantic level, data can be transferred in a state where it is instantly usable afterward.

The George W. Bush administration gave significant support to the health industry's cause in 2004. It established the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The ONC quickly went to work, creating the Nationwide Health Information Network. The NwHIN was designed to encourage the exchange of medical information among a large assortment of resources, including different government agencies and private entities. The ONC went on to establish two committees: one to provide standards to improve data exchange and the other to reach out to businesses and help persuade them to support the unrestricted exchange of information. The committees gained some support, but both soon folded. Under the Barack Obama administration, the ONC was rejuvenated with funding and new legal power. It formed the Standards and Interoperability Framework, a more advanced version of the NwHIN. It led to the development of programs that allowed patients to access their medical records with ease. However, according to the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) in 2022, while healthcare stakeholders have converted clinical and administrative information into digital formats through the use of electronic health records (EHRs), sharing this information among patients, payers, and organizations remained limited. However, achieving this interoperability landscape was expected to be achieved in the coming years.

In 2015, the US government revealed an initiative to invest in what it called smart cities. This program was designed to emphasize technology and cooperation between local governments and businesses to help improve quality of life. According to the initiative, smart cities should have technology that can collect data efficiently and transfer it immediately to the appropriate sources to help run different city services. This includes traffic-monitoring systems, crime alerts, public transportation, and delivery services. It also calls for city governments to be in direct communication with universities, businesses, and fellow cities. This involved significant financial investments into improving infrastructure in chosen cities and investments into research. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has helped make strides toward the vision of smart cities. It developed technology that could interface with different city software programs and provide a standard that would allow them to communicate easier.

The development of mobile phones in the mid-2000s had a significant impact on interoperability. In a short time, mobile phones with numerous built-in features, the ability to download vast amounts of software applications, and the ability to interact with other devices became common. The sheer volume of different products and applications has resulted in many interoperable systems, but it has also led to many legal restrictions.

By the 2010s, several governments offered incentives or requirements to embrace interoperability. Its benefits to businesses and consumers alike were well known, especially in the health industry. Economists generally considered businesses that ran on interoperable technology more efficient. Even technology itself was not seen as the obstacle to interoperability that it was in the twentieth century. However, many technology developers did not stand to benefit from giving extra time, effort, and money to ensure that their product could work with a competitor's offerings. Proponents often advocate for more incentives to be aimed at developers to adopt interoperability, rather than at businesses that use their products.

Bibliography

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