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Our last Newsletter focused on Testing and highlighted a research note authored by Gartner Research Vice President, Barry Runyon, which explains the importance of healthcare information system interoperability – specifically the testing needed to ensure it. We described it at the time as a part of the interoperability puzzle that AEGIS feels is often overlooked or de-emphasized.

This edition places another piece of the puzzle anchoring around Rick Howard's, "Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for Government 2015" published by Gartner in April. One of those Top 10 Trends he identifies is Scalable Interoperability. We're happy to see a spotlight placed on interoperability that explains there is more accountability to the challenge than a system demonstrating that it can interoperate at a particular point in time. Interoperability that isn't scalable and continuous is not interoperability that patients and providers can depend upon.

The concept of Scalable Interoperability ties directly in to another topic – how to objectively demonstrate this kind of scalable, continuous interoperability? We have an answer – the AEGIS Interoperability Scorecard. We wrote about earlier this year in our blog, and we've linked it up here in the newsletter so you can read all about it.

Lest we forget why we do what we do in health IT, it's a good idea to remind ourselves once in a while of how our technical challenges meet the patient. To that end, we have included an updated version of one of our most popular blog posts to date, one I wrote myself in response to my encounter with interoperability – or lack of it – while dealing with health issues in my own family. I know many of us can tell similar stories, and we agree it's past time our industry solved the interoperability challenge once and for all.

Once again, I hope you enjoy our newsletter and by all means let us know what you think! You can find us online at http://www.AEGIS.net, and participate in our dialog via our blog at http://blog.AEGIS.net.

Source: AEGIS