Interoperability is one of the hottest buzzwords in government.  It is harder to say than chrysanthemum, and yet I hear it flowing effortlessly out of the mouths of our leaders across all sectors.  Everyone wants it, yet it seems to evade a precise definition and means different things to different people.  I offer that is just how it should be.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, or ONC, issued late last month its 2016 catalog of standards for interoperable health IT, which incorporates two rounds of public comments and recommendations made in response to the inaugural 2015 document.