Healthcare Interoperability in the Age of AI: Real Progress, Real Gaps
Healthcare data exchange has advanced significantly—but it hasn’t yet achieved consistent, enterprise-wide performance. In a recent Healthcare IT News feature, Zack Tisch offers a clear-eyed view of where the industry stands today.
There have been meaningful structural gains: hospitals are far more capable of sharing and incorporating external data than in the past, API-based access has become commonplace, and TEFCA has evolved into active exchange infrastructure. But, as Zack explained, that progress doesn’t yet translate into seamless interoperability across the enterprise:
“The foundation is real, the momentum is real and the direction is right, but the market is still in a transition phase.”
Beyond basic data exchange, more complex workflows—like prior authorization, referral management, and third-party integrations—remain inconsistent and often require significant customization or manual effort.
At the same time, AI is raising expectations. It’s no longer enough for data to simply move—it has to be timely, reliable, and usable within workflows. That shift is pushing interoperability beyond a technical requirement into a core component of enterprise strategy.