Interoperability: what’s it all about?

In recent times there has been a boom in the number of quantified self devices available for consumers on the market. The famous ‘fitBit’ is an example of a device which falls under this popular quantified-self movement. These types of devices feed vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate to the user so that they can observe these functions in real-time and track them over time. It is projected that by 2019, over half a billion wearables will be used globally with 16.4m of these in the UK, according to an analysis by International Data Corporation. Of these 16.4m, two thirds are expected to be used for health tracking. So the demand to track one’s health is tremendous. However, the ability to allow the data to flow from for example one’s FitBit into one’s health record is not there yet.