Unlocking the Potential: Exploring Interoperability Challenges and Solutions in Digital Health Ecosystems

Abstract

Digital health has the potential to revolutionize and democratise healthcare delivery in ways that could not be imagined a few years ago, bringing humanity closer to the vision of universal health coverage. At the same time though, healthcare systems across the globe are facing unprecedented challenges due to the ageing population, the lack of adequate resources and emerging public health risks such as the recent pandemic. Among the many com- peting priorities, healthcare leaders need to accelerate dig- ital transformation and ensure that patients and clinicians will soon be able to harness the benefits of the new tech- nologies. One of biggest challenge remains the lack of inter- operability between systems. National and EU wide initia- tives have the potential to unlock some of the obstacles, however significant risks lie ahead. To address the interop- erability problem in Greece, significant work has been done for the development of the Greek National eHealth Inter- operability Framework (NeHIF) which could be the basis for the implementation of the Greek Digital Transformation Programme. The creation of a digital ecosystem of certified vendors could accelerate the implementation of this pro- gram and minimise the relevant risks.