Provide automated health care delivery processes and seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information through standards-based solutions.

Interoperability standards enable certain applications to be shared among EHR systems, resulting in a unified (logical) view of a given EHR system where several disparate systems may actually be participating transparently. Interoperability standards also enable certain information to be shared among EHR systems (including information that resides in regional, national, or international information exchanges). Interoperability standards also promote timely and efficient information capture, use, and re-use, often reducing the cumulative workload of the broad set of stakeholders.

When health-related information is exchanged -- or when external applications are used to extend an EHR system -- the interoperability methods and underlying standards that were used in the process may need to be disclosed during a legal proceeding (especially when the resulting information becomes part of the patient's medical record).