Applying a holistic view when treating a patient could significantly improve outcomes achieved by healthcare providers. Therefore, the future of healthcare will include the seamless and timely exchange of patient information between different healthcare providers and organizations across the entire industry–interoperability. 

In a push toward interoperability, 96% of hospitals have moved to electronic health records (EHRs) from traditional paper-based systems; however, this has brought about a brand new set of challenges, as patient data remains siloed even today. The fax machine still prevails, accounting for nearly 70% of all medical communication. Thus, health information exchanges, natural language processing, automated algorithms, and application programming interfaces (APIs) are becoming increasingly popular in enhancing interoperability. 

The healthcare industry will likely undergo more standardization and technological advancements in the coming decade to support widespread data transmission and interoperability adoption following newly enacted rules and regulations. The interoperability space has raised a total of USD 2.0 billion as of August 2022, with data platforms such as Gorilla Health and clinical data exchange platforms such as Moxe Health and Particle Health raising funding in 2022. 

In this Edge insight, we take a look at the current landscape of hospital interoperability, rules and standards supporting it, underlying demand factors driving its adoption, and what the future of interoperability would look like.