As more and more physicians adopt electronic health record systems, there is a growing interest in interoperability. This concept will allow medical offices to connect to each other and share patients’ records regardless of whether or not the separate offices are using different systems.

James P. Keller Jr., vice president of health technology evaluation and safety at ECRI Institute, a non-profit healthcare consultancy group, told CMIO Magazine that getting more providers to use the same language when creating EHRs could lead to significant improvements in quality and efficiency.

"You’ve got a lot of potential for building efficiency and accuracy, and the financial incentives and penalties associated with the government’s meaningful use criteria will help drive that," Keller told the news source.

In particular, he highlighted the potential for connecting medical devices to EHR systems, which could help eliminate burdens on staff to regularly monitor device readings.

Currently, there are no standards for interoperability in the government’s meaningful use rules. However, there are requirements for data exchange, which could be facilitated by a single EHR vocabulary.