Health Informatics, Inc. is a vendor with a large collection of clinical information systems and hospital information systems that are designed to share data without human or technical intervention. This is a(an)

• A. Integrated system
• B. Interfaced system
• C. Stand-alone system
• D. Interoperable system

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is automation of data sharing between different health information systems through connections called interfaces. An interfaced system uses predefined interfaces to link separate systems so information can move automatically from one to another, without someone having to enter or translate data each time. This setup lets items like lab results, orders, and patient demographics flow into the right system and be usable without manual steps, which matches the description of sharing data without human or technical intervention.

This is different from an integrated system, which usually means a single, unified package from one vendor; a stand-alone system, which operates in isolation; and interoperability, which is the broader ability of systems to exchange and meaningfully use data—often described in terms of standards but not specifically about the mechanism (interfaces) that enable the automatic data flow described here. A practical example is a lab and an EHR connected by a lab interface that automatically updates the patient chart.