ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the acquisition, organization and exchange of healthcare related information. It discusses various issues and techniques needed to reconcile heterogeneous databases from different organizations, issues and techniques related to retrieving and transmitting information from one database to another database. The chapter also describes various standards for medical terms used to provide interoperability between heterogeneous databases and describes the overall architecture to integrate heterogeneous databases and information flow across them. SNOMED is a structured standardized terminology for the exchange of information between heterogeneous databases across different geographical location worldwide. LOINC is a standardized code for lab tests, clinical measurements and observations. The chapter also discusses techniques to incorporate Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) into existing medical information archiving, retrieval and transmission to protect patients' privacy and confidentiality. HIPAA limits the knowledge of the disease and medical condition of patients only to the care-giving physicians and medical practitioners.
