7,000 words on the missing layer of interoperability that no one talks about: workflow interoperability! You may have seen my post on pragmatic interoperability. It’s workflow tech that will make pragmatic interoperability possible. That’s why I call it workflow interoperability around health IT folks; it’s less scary. 🙂 Pragmatics is a term from linguistics, as syntax and semantics are, but is lesser known in the health IT realm (I’m ABD — all but dissertation — in computational linguistics). I start by defining task interoperability, and then use that definition to build a definition of workflow interoperability.
The next five years will see enormous investments in time, energy, and money, climbing an important learning curve, from the data-centric notions of interoperability toward workflow-centric notions. From essentially fancy database management systems toward true workflow management systems, the modern manifestation being Business Process Management (BPM) application platforms.
By the way, I am extremely gratified by how widely my series was distributed via social media (almost 150 shares on LinkedIn, over 400 on Twitter), as well as the many public and private comments of praise and encouragement. Viva la workflow!
- Achieving task and workflow interoperability in healthcare (Monday)