According to McKinsey, global digital health revenues will grow from $350 billion in 2019 to $600 billion in 2024. The digital health market is actively growing thanks to the implementation of e-document management, telemedicine, medical analytics, and mHealth. New technologies increase the efficiency and quality of medical services, reduce administrative and physician burdens, speed up hospital workflows, simplify communication between patients and doctors, and make patients’ lives more comfortable.

However, the introduction of advanced technologies in healthcare is hampered by the problem of interoperability or compatibility of various devices and systems. Let’s find out what interoperability is, what steps are being taken to achieve it, and look at the interoperability standards in digital health in 2022.

What is Interoperability?

Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems to exchange and use information. This is very relevant and important for healthcare since this sector includes a huge number of participants (medical providers, doctors, patients, insurers, healthcare software developers, medical device manufacturers, and so on) who need to exchange data with each other.

For example, a patient with a chronic disease went on vacation to another country where he/she became ill. Interoperability will allow medical professionals from that country to have instant access to the medical record of this patient and prescribe the necessary therapy. It doesn’t matter if the doctors of both countries use different health information systems. If they are compatible, it’s no problem getting the required data.

Considering the fact that two out of three older Americans suffer from chronic diseases, this is a very important feature. Moreover, interoperable systems and devices will allow medical centers and hospitals to automatically issue an invoice and send it to the patient’s insurance company.

How Does Interoperability Benefit Healthcare?

Better Quality of Medical Services

People seek medical help in different healthcare institutions and go to various specialists. If medical professionals have access to a patient’s medical history, information about previous diseases, allergies, treatments, and so on, this will greatly simplify communication between the doctor and the patient, improve the speed and quality of medical services, as well as increase patient satisfaction. By the way, Deloitte found that hospitals with high ratings get $444 more revenue than those with lower ratings.

Greater Efficiency

Since medical professionals will have access to patient data, they won’t have to conduct additional research and analysis. As a result, they will spend less time on examinations and be able to see more patients. Interoperable systems will allow healthcare institutions to share information and research, which will also have a great effect on the efficiency of working processes. For example, HealthIT revealed that EHRs allow medical providers to deliver better patient care and increase productivity.

Lesser Expenses

Medical providers have to spend one out of every three dollars on administrative costs. Using interoperable systems will allow them to cut these expenses because they won’t spend time and resources on paperwork, additional analyzes and examinations, manual billing, and so on.

Better Protection of Private Data

Healthcare organizations deal with a large amount of personal data of both employees and patients every day. This data must be properly protected as hackers are constantly after it. Modern healthcare interoperability solutions allow the medical branch participants to transfer data quickly and securely.

A survey conducted by lifeIMAGE, a company specializing in medical imaging technologies, showed that interoperability:

• improves coordination in healthcare (according to 86% of respondents);
• improves the quality of medical care (71%);
• increases the satisfaction of doctors (63%); and
• reduces the degree of exposure of patients to radiation (42%).

What Are Interoperability Problems?

The compatibility of various devices and systems in healthcare brings many advantages, but medical institutions experience serious interoperability problems. This is confirmed by the above-mentioned survey, according to which more than 50% of respondents are currently unable to transfer medical images to other health systems and applications. This leads to delays in diagnosis and treatment, unnecessary tests, and, as a result, makes patients go to other hospitals and medical centers.

What is the problem? After all, hospitals today use the most modern devices and systems that continuously provide data on the condition of patients. The global mHealth apps market reached USD 38.2 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow further. The point is that the information received by doctors comes in various, often incompatible formats. As a result, it’s difficult for medical professionals to compare and analyze the indicators in order to start the correct treatment. Hospitals complained about functional incompatibility long ago.

How to Solve Interoperability Issues in Healthcare?

Deloitte believes that a unified infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, medical systems and services promises to transform healthcare, but interoperability can be a barrier to developing the Internet of Medical Things. According to the company, manufacturers of medical devices should solve the interoperability problem by moving to open platforms based on open data standards. This will allow medical providers, insurers, and medical device manufacturers to work together to make data more accessible.

Deloitte thinks that the following measures will help the healthcare market participants solve the interoperability issues:

• Mass adoption of open application programming interfaces (APIs);
• Creation of an integrated governance structure among stakeholders to improve data integrity;
• Agreement on the exchange of data between healthcare stakeholders;
• Introduction of unified messaging standards for medical data; and
• Building consensus on interoperability standards.

Meanwhile, technology giants, such as Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce intend to solve the problem of interoperability in healthcare by promoting a strategy of using free standards and protocols. It’s believed that open standards, open specifications, and open-source tools will allow the medical branch participants to exchange data seamlessly. This, in turn, will improve patient care, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce healthcare facilities’ costs. Let’s take a closer look at interoperability standards.

What Are Interoperability Standards in Digital Health?

The West Health Institute (WHI) found that manufacturers lost $430 million due to interoperability issues. Eliminating these problems will reduce healthcare costs by $30 billion a year. To date, the following interoperability standards are used in healthcare:

HL7

HL7 (Health Level 7) is a set of international standards developed by Health Level Seven International, a global organization developing interoperability standards for health information systems. These standards define how data is exchanged, integrated, and retrieved. There are the following standards:

• Version 2.x Messaging Standard – an interoperability specification for health and medical transactions
• Version 3.x Messaging Standard – an interoperability specification for health and medical transactions
• CDA (Clinical Document Architecture) – a clinical document exchange model based on HL7 version 3
• CCD (Continuity of Care Document) – US specifications for the exchange of medical reports based on the CDA
• SPL (Structured Product Labeling) – published information that accompanies a drug based on HL7 version 3
• CCOW (Clinical Context Object Workgroup) – interoperability specifications for visual integration of user applications
• FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) – a standard for resource exchange
• Arden syntax – a grammar for representing medical conditions and recommendations in the form of a Medical Logic Module (MLM)
• Apps for applications – a standard healthcare app to complement another healthcare transaction
• Electronic Health Record (EHR) Functional Specification/Personal Health Record (PHR) systems – a standardized description of the health and medical functions that are required or available in such software applications
• GELLO – a standard expression language used for clinical decision support

DICOM

DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is a medical standard owned by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and developed by the DICOM Standards Committee, which consists of several working groups. It describes how information should be processed, stored, printed, and transmitted in medical imaging systems. It describes the file format and a network protocol.

DICOM allows the integration of scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and network equipment produced by various manufacturers into a PACS system (Picture Archiving and Communication System). The devices come with a DICOM conformance statement that describes how and what functions the device performs.

CCR

CCR (Continuity of Care Record) is a standard developed by ASTM International, Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and others. Its goal is to create flexible documents containing the most up-to-date basic patient health information and send it electronically from one medical provider to another.

Are you planning to develop a healthcare app? Then you need to make sure that your solution is interoperable and can keep up with current healthcare trends. Elinext specialists have already developed a lot of products for the medical industry, which can work on a wide variety of hardware platforms and operating systems. They will be glad to answer all your questions regarding interoperable medical devices.