Abstract
In the previous chapter we discussed how health information technology is being used to help patients better manage their own care. Providing patients with the data to do this is a key imperative and arguably the prime use case for interoperability. In this chapter, we will focus on the main impediments to interoperability and provide examples of how they are being overcome. We will discuss the evolving role of health information exchanges, the value-added services they can provide by consolidating information from EHRs and other systems across their geographic scope, and the role that FHIR is starting to play in a new generation of HIE technologies.
