Today's healthcare IT organizations are challenged to manage a growing portfolio of system solutions. The cost of acquiring, integrating and maintaining these systems is rising, while the demands of system users are increasing.
Organizations must address evolving clinical requirements as well as continue to support revenue cycle and administration business functions. In addition to internal data integration needs, demands are increasing for interoperability with other organizations to regionally support care delivery.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) offers system design and management principles that support reuse and sharing of system resources across the healthcare organization. SOA does not require the re-engineering of existing systems. With SOA, existing processing can be combined with new capabilities to build a library of services that are used as a part of, or to compose, solutions. Using shared services that are aligned with business processes, SOA strengthens interoperability while reducing the need to synchronize data between isolated systems. Services may be made available, no matter their location, to create solutions that reach beyond the desktop, the department and the healthcare organization.
