Interoperability: a reliability challenge across systemsand humans; illustrated by health care examples

摘要

End-to-end functionality is often the result of cooperation between many systems. Wernwill discuss interoperability of systems, including the humans involved. Root causes ofrninteroperability problems are inconsistencies between the models of the world within the systemrnand the actual situation in the world. The dynamics of time complicates interoperability evenrnmore.rnStandards play a crucial role in facilitating interoperability. Unfortunately , compliance tornstandards is no guarantee for interoperability. Interoperability is required at many levels, fromrnsingle technical systems to social systems. Abstraction is one of the means to cope withrnincreased interoperability scope. However, rather detailed implementation issues may causerndangerous interoperability problems.rnInteroperability has many dimensions: technical, applicational, social, and cultural. Thernownership for interoperability is unclear. This unclear ownership in such multi-dimensionalrnproblem space explains why interoperability is so difficult to achieve.