IFly: Interoperability on the fly for healthcare

Healthcare data interoperability is widely recognized as an important enabler of digital transformation in healthcare, yet it remains challenged by fragmented technical, organizational, regulatory, and clinical perspectives, as well as unclear governance and limited cross-sector collaboration.

To explore these challenges, Halmstad University, Region Halland, Capio Ramsay Santé, Mölnlycke Healthcare, InterSystems, and Avenga will conduct the joint research project I-Fly within the CAISR Health research profile. I-Fly aims to investigate how information-driven care may be supported through standardized healthcare data models, care pathway-centered design, and regulatory alignment.

Using wound care as an initial use case, I-Fly will examine how existing healthcare data can potentially be harmonized and reused without increasing documentation burden for healthcare professionals. The project will explore approaches to EHDS readiness and seek to generate insights relevant to data quality, continuity of care, and improved management and coordination of healthcare services.

The four pillars of the project

Pillar 1: Interoperable Care Pathways

This pillar focuses on developing an empirical understanding of interoperable care pathways across organizational boundaries. Recognizing that patients often receive care from multiple providers, I-Fly will study current wound-care documentation practices, including challenges, variations, and unmet needs across different care settings. Based on these findings, the pillar will analyze organizational, professional, and governance-related conditions for structured documentation that may support coordinated and continuous care. The results are expected to inform conceptual models of care pathways and provide design principles for documentation practices that facilitate information reuse.

Pillar 2: Interoperable Healthcare Data for Primary and Secondary Use

This pillar treats healthcare data as a potential resource for both clinical care and secondary purposes such as research, innovation, and public health. In relation to the European Health Data Space (EHDS), I-Fly will investigate how semantic interoperability and harmonized standards, including SNOMED CT, ICD, and LOINC, are currently used and perceived in practice. The pillar will also examine existing data infrastructures and governance arrangements that influence how health data is accessed, shared, and reused. Through this analysis, I-Fly aims to generate knowledge about technical, organizational, and policy-related factors that shape interoperability and data reuse.

Pillar 3: AI-Driven and FAIR-E Care

This pillar explores the relationship between interoperable healthcare data and AI-driven care, using wound care as an illustrative case. It will analyze relevant healthcare data types, standards, and terminologies that may support AI applications in this domain. The pillar will also review current technical and organizational practices related to data sharing and AI use across care settings. Based on these studies, I-Fly will propose conceptual frameworks and governance considerations for FAIR-E data and AI, contributing to discussions on how ethical, transparent, and responsible AI could be supported in healthcare.

Pillar 4: Regulatory and Governance Frameworks

This pillar focuses on regulatory and governance issues related to interoperable health data, with particular attention to the European Health Data Space (EHDS). It will analyze EHDS requirements for primary and secondary data use and examine how legal and ethical responsibilities are distributed among key actors such as healthcare providers, data controllers, data users, and technology developers. The pillar will also explore legal and ethical tensions associated with EHDS-driven interoperability, aiming to produce empirical insights that can inform organizational preparedness and governance strategies.