An Inventory of Interoperability in Healthcare Ecosystems: Characterization and Challenges

This chapter deals with the eHealth interoperability research context and its benefits and challenges. It gives an overview of the different meanings of the concept of interoperability in practice. The chapter compares different interoperability frameworks for the health domain and highlights their relevance as well as their coverage with regard to the eHealth interoperability domain. All the categories of interoperability can be merged into three main levels: technical interoperability, semantic interoperability and organizational interoperability. Personal Health Systems (PHS) assist in the seamless provision of quality-controlled and personalized health services to individuals, regardless of their location. There are three basic ways to relate entities together to establish interoperations: the integrated approach and the unified approach. The chapter compares the interoperability frameworks in the health domain based on the interoperability dimensions defined by the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and the Framework of Enterprise Interoperability (FEI).