Table 4.

Examples of value of successful interoperability by stakeholder group

The patient	• The patient is able to track PFT data from early childhood to adulthood with integration of data across healthcare systems throughout the lifetime.
	• Results are accessible to providers in general and specialty care and in different geographic regions.
The clinician	• Physicians have access to historical lung function information for a given patient who has been evaluated in different health systems to diagnose the onset of disease.
	• Enhanced ability to observe trends in lung function over time to monitor patients with chronic disease.
	• Quality metrics provide a greater ability to factor in data quality.
The clinician–researcher	• Data would be easily extractable within a healthcare system to foster discovery.
	• Quality metrics would be more uniform to increase data quality and reduce bias.
Device manufacturers	• Standard output would make output uniform between clients so that interfacing with EHR companies would be uniform.
	• Enhanced efficiency.
EHR	• Inputs would be standard so that interfacing data from PFT vendors would be uniform. Output of data to end-users’ healthcare providers and patients would be standardized, with minor customizations based on patient complexity.
	• Enhanced efficiency.
Population health/all stakeholders	• Population health research can be amplified using data analytics and big data. This will facilitate study of risk factors, protective factors to promote optimal lung development and lung health, and interventions.

Definition of abbreviations: EHR = electronic health record; PFT = pulmonary function test.