What is interoperability?

22 January 2025

Authors

Gregg Lindemulder

Senior Writer

Matthew Kosinski

Enterprise Technology Writer

What is interoperability?

Interoperability is a standards-based approach to enabling different IT systems to exchange data and share functionality with minimal end user intervention. 

Interoperable systems play an increasingly vital role in healthcare, government, commerce and public safety. Interoperability provides an efficient and effective way for diverse information technology (IT) systems in these areas to connect, communicate and share essential data.

For example, interoperability enables healthcare providers to access and update electronic health records (EHR), supply chains to track and manage inventory and government service providers to provide social services to citizens.

Interoperability is made possible by using common standards that define how data is formatted and exchanged between systems. Sometimes, interoperability standards are mandated by law to help ensure the compatibility of critical systems, such as those used for public health or public safety. 

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Why interoperability matters

Interoperability is important because it optimizes data sharing between separate information systems, which helps prevent data silos. It provides a seamless user experience during this information exchange, so disconnected datasets can be easily accessed to achieve a common objective.

For instance, interoperability enables a clinician to access both lab results and historical patient data to make a diagnosis. Or it might help a sales manager access purchasing transactions and website activity to create personalized offers for customers.

Interoperability benefits organizations by enabling them to:

  • Access data
  • Improve efficiency
  • Enhance collaboration
  • Make better decisions
  • Manage scalability
  • Reduce costs

Access data

Interoperability makes data easily accessible from multiple sources. It eliminates the need to transform or reformat data elements before they can be used. This capability simplifies information sharing because users can access external data in real time without effort.

Improve efficiency

Interoperability accelerates workflows by removing time-consuming tasks such as manual data entry and data processing. It also reduces the possibility of errors by providing accurate data directly from the source. Users have more time to focus on their jobs instead of preparing or correcting imported data.

Enhance collaboration

By breaking down barriers between data silos and sharing information across diverse systems, interoperability improves communication and collaboration. Different companies, agencies or organizational departments can all share a unified view of the same datasets to help them work together more effectively.

Make better decisions

Easy access to accurate data from multiple sources enables a more comprehensive view of data ecosystems. Interoperability helps stakeholders gain greater visibility so they can make better and more data-driven decisions.

Manage scalability

Interoperability can help organizations expand operations by taking advantage of efficient data exchanges. Instead of needing to create new data sources for any new business initiative, they can easily access existing data sources to power expanding workloads.

Reduce costs

Interoperability reduces costs by eliminating the need to purchase and maintain software systems that process, prepare and distribute external data for use in internal systems. It also cuts the expense of human labor required to manually enter and prepare data from noninteroperable systems.

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How interoperability works

For interoperability to work, the systems that share data must use a common set of standards. These standards usually include common data formats, data exchange protocols and a mutual vocabulary to describe data elements.

These standards are agreed upon in advance by the organizations, user groups, governments or industries that desire interoperability.

Software developers then build solutions and apps that use the approved standards. They also typically provide an application programming interface (API) that is used as the gateway to connect the systems.

Some interoperability standards are relatively simple, specifying that systems use a common data format such as Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Others are more complex, defining not only formats but also metadata structures, transmission protocols and other requirements.

Examples of interoperability standards include:

  • Electronic data interchange (EDI) refers to a set of standards for securely transmitting digital documents between businesses. There are many variations of EDI standards used across different industries and locations.  

  • Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a health data exchange standard mandated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), a unit of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

  • Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is a data format standard and a transmission protocol for exchanging and storing medical images and patient data.

  • Project 25 (P25) is a digital two-way radio standard that enables public safety agencies to communicate with each other.

Levels of interoperability

There are 4 levels of interoperability that systems can achieve:

  • Foundational
  • Structural
  • Semantic
  • Organizational
Foundational interoperability

This level of interoperability, also known as simple transport, is the most basic. Data is securely transferred from one system to another without being interpreted or transformed into a particular format. Information flows freely between systems, but manual intervention might be required to process or analyze the data. 

Structural interoperability

At this level, all the data that is shared between systems is standardized to a particular format so it can be interpreted and put to use. Standardized formats typically involve sorting data into standardized fields so the receiving system can automatically detect what each field represents.  

For example, data captured in a customer database might be sorted into fields such as “name,” “address” and “purchase history.” Business applications that access this database can interpret the contents based on these fields. That is, applications treat data in the “name” field as a customer’s name, data in the “address” field as a customer’s address and so on.  

Semantic interoperability

With semantic interoperability, systems can exchange data and understand its meaning even if the data is structured differently.

At this level, the 2 systems use a shared vocabulary to interpret the data. Regardless of the source or the format, both systems recognize the meaning of the data because they share a common terminology to describe it.

Semantic interoperability often relies on metadata. When data is transferred from one system to another, that data is accompanied by metadata that instructs the receiving system how to interpret it based on a shared terminology set.

For example, in healthcare, providers can use different names to refer to the same medical condition. To make sure that healthcare systems are aligned, organizations often use a terminology database where each condition maps to a specific code. When data is transferred between systems, it includes this code, which tells receiving systems how to interpret the condition. 

Organizational interoperability

Organizational interoperability refers to when organizations align their operational and data governance policies so information can flow freely and securely between them.

This level goes beyond shared technical standards to also include common goals, processes and legal considerations. Because of the intricate nature of these shared standards, some consider organizational interoperability the highest level of interoperability.

Interoperability use cases

Healthcare

Interoperability empowers healthcare organizations to easily access and share vital healthcare data such as lab results, diagnoses, prescribed medications and immunization registries. This efficient exchange of electronic health information helps healthcare providers improve patient care and outcomes.

In the United States, healthcare information interoperability is mandated for organizations that receive payments for Medicare or Medicaid services.

Government

Governments use interoperability to help departments and agencies communicate and collaborate on public service priorities.

Interoperable systems are used to plan budgets, provide services such as licensing and registration, enroll citizens in benefits programs and file electronic tax returns. Interoperability can reduce the cost and administrative overhead of delivering government services.

Public safety

Interoperability is a key capability during public emergencies. It enables first responders from different jurisdictions that use different systems to communicate in real time to coordinate responses and allocate resources. Police, firefighters and paramedics often rely on interoperable systems.

Telecommunications

Interoperability enables different telecommunications platforms, services, networks and devices to connect and communicate. For example, a landline phone can call to a smartphone, a VoIP phone can connect to a landline phone and text messages can be sent across multiple service providers.

Defense and military

Military forces of allied nations use interoperability to improve communication, decision-making and strategic adaptability. For example, member nations of NATO use interoperable communications systems and common tactics, procedures and equipment standards when they train and conduct missions.

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