Unlocking the Power of Semantic Interoperability Across Complex Healthcare Settings

Healthcare systems rely increasingly on digital data for patient care, administrative tasks and research. The absence of comprehensive interoperability in the New York State public mental healthcare system across behavioral healthcare settings sometimes leads to inefficiencies, errors and impediments to providing optimal care. The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) recently launched a major program around Critical Time Intervention (CTI) focused on connecting vulnerable individuals with recovery-oriented services and transitioning them from street homelessness to stable housing. This approach utilizes care teams that offer a multidisciplinary approach with licensed clinicians, care managers, peer specialists and registered nurses. CTI includes four phases, which require teams to have skill sets based on a nonjudgmental, person-centered, culturally sensitive, strength-based approach that meets service recipients’ needs. Given the complexity of needs in this population, it was imperative to collect data at all levels. To support timely, informed clinical decision-making, OMH implemented a hybrid semantic interoperability framework that supports both modern application programming interfaces such as Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7® FHIR®) and structured flat-file formats, enabling cross-system data exchange across providers. This framework incorporates terminology mapping (SNOMED CT, ICD-10, Gravity Project®, etc.), metadata tagging and consent controls.