HIMSS Video Blog: The challenge of interoperability

It was designed as a showcase for the nexus of standards and IT, a testament to the ability of divergent systems to work together in a health information exchange. This “interoperability showcase,” an island on the HIMSS09 exhibit floor of kiosks, employed various clinical scenarios to demonstrate the potential of IT to deliver information that can make a crucial difference in the care of patients.

John T. Donnelly, president of the consulting firm IntePro Solutions, and co-chair of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Patient Care Coordination Planning Committee, notes that standard bodies define the way messages are exchanged between different information systems. But there’s more to making information useful than just exchanging messages.