JASON task force co-chairs David McCallie Jr. and Micky Tripathi have suggested the U.S. government's role in interoperability should be to guide the process while market forces determine the avenues through which it will occur, according to a report from Information Week.
The two recommended the government approach interoperability by intervening when necessary, though allowing healthcare providers and health IT vendors to work out most interoperability issues without assistance.
"We believe that a standards-based API, combined with appropriate incentives to encourage vendors to implement the API and providers to enable access to their data via the API has potential to move interoperability forward dramatically," said Mr. McCallie in the report. "Vendors will see the value of becoming certified for the public API and will react accordingly. We believe that this is an appropriate way to leverage the government's regulatory power."
While who exactly should lead development of a public API remains unclear, Mr. Tripathi commented that vendors and providers are in a better position than the U.S. government to identify problems and potential solutions with functional interoperability.
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