Where it Counts: Interoperability Standards for EHR Technology

The United States Department of Health and Human Services boasts a special task force specifically assigned to build and improve nationwide electronic health record (EHR) interoperability. Known as the Office of Standards & Interoperability (OSI), this office works to create an interoperable health IT environment, and concentrates its efforts toward developing and maintaining standards in four critical areas of EHR technology, including:

• How applications interact with users (such as e-prescribing)

• How systems communicate with each other (such as messaging standards)

• How information is processed and managed (such as health information exchange)

• How consumer devices integrate with other systems and applications (such as tablet PCs)

Source: The National Learning Consortium