In my 7/24/2012 post, I observed that exchanging uncoded lab results is the state of the art.
Why worry? SMART is pushing to enable third-party apps on disparate health IT systems, and codes are the glue holding meaning together. Without coded data, apps can’t tell a Hemoglobin A1c measurement from a monocyte percentage!
In the USA we have substantial infrastructure to promote the flow of coded data. So where do things break down?