In our last blog, "The Resurgence of the Small Practice," we discussed several evolving capabilities that will enhance the ability of clinicians in small practices to both drive and demonstrate value in the management of their patients. In today’s blog we examine more closely the role of interoperability in driving value for not just small practices, but for everyone in the healthcare ecosystem—including and especially patients. Interoperability has become quite the buzzword. In fact, a Google search for “Interoperability in Healthcare” yielded 28 million results. Given its pervasiveness, it’s not surprising that the precise meaning of the term is often obscured. The 21st Century Cures Act defined three key components of interoperability: "(A)… the secure exchange of electronic health information with, and use of electronic health information from, other health information technology without special effort on the part of the user; (B) … complete access, exchange, and use of all electronically accessible health information for authorized use under applicable State or Federal law; and (C) [technology that] does not constitute information blocking as defined in section 3022(a).” To understand what all of this means in practice, consider use cases in three arenas: clinical, social services, and administrative. When a patient is receiving services from a provider, interoperability means that all relevant information is readily available at the point of service to both the patient and the provider. In an ideal world that means that no matter where other services were received the provider has all past history, diagnostic tests, treatments, and even social determinants of health (SDOH) at their fingertips. Similarly, for both staff and patients, appropriate information is readily available as needed.