FHIR May Not Help Healthcare Orgs Achieve Semantic Interoperability

Healthcare organizations participating in the value-based care environment are in need of strong, secure data pipelines that can help them communicate across disparate health systems to coordinate and streamline patient care. As providers build out the infrastructure required to support meaningful health information exchange, they are keeping their eyes on the ultimate goal of complete semantic interoperability: the ability to seamlessly exchange information that can be accepted, read, and understood across any system created by any health IT vendor. Using the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, now commonly known by the acronym FHIR, to build out data exchange capabilities has become a popular approach.  The internet-based standard offers common ground for providers and developers who wish to move away from proprietary architecture and a “walled garden” approach to data management.