OECD Points to 6.6% Potential Benefit of Interoperable Health Data

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The global push for interconnected health data is highlighted by the OECD study (published July 30th), which estimates that fully interoperable health systems could enable savings ranging from 2.7% to 6.6% of annual healthcare spending. The recommendation to member states is the adoption of unified frameworks and international standards such as HL7 FHIR, SNOMED CT, ICD, LOINC, and openEHR. On a global scale, the WHO joined the Open Health Stack Software Foundation to support countries in building interoperable digital health systems using open-source resources. Nationally, Nigeria presented a plan for a secure digital health ecosystem based on the principle of 'One Patient, One Health Record,' estimating potential annual value of 11.5 billion Euros. Ireland is advancing universal access to electronic patient records (EPR) through its national roadmap (2024–2030). Technologically, Mayo Clinic and Einstein Hospital Israelita have integrated clinical data from Brazil into a global dataset covering South America, alongside partners in Canada, Israel, Korea, and the USA. Furthermore, regulatory efforts are accelerating: US health organizations must implement FHIR-based interfaces by January 2027 for pre-approval and data exchange. In Germany, the EU Health Data Space (EHDS) is driving demand for specialists in data quality and IT security, while the German Human Genome Phenome Archive (GHGA) has started a new secure upload workflow for national Omics data into European research infrastructure.