Interoperability Paper
BSHS/375
May 06, 2015
Interoperability Paper
Interoperability is a term that is not commonly understood by most human service professionals, although most understand the trends that are making interoperability inevitable. In its simplest form, interoperability is the ability of electronically linked agencies to work together, to interoperate (“Interoperability,” 2010). It has a technical component – data linking-- and a practice component – the use of linked data in decision making. Formally, interoperability is defined as “the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged” (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2005).
The Administration for Children & Families (ACF) is acknowledged as a significant Department of Health & Human Services America. ACF supports the economic and social well-being of children, families, communities, and individuals through offering many state of the art programs. ACF’s human services provide an extensive range of groups consisting of individuals and families earning low income, Native Americans, refugees, and many others. (ACF, 2013)
To fulfill its mission ACF is struggling to provide grants to non-profit groups, state and local governments, faith and community-based organizations, Native American communities, and American Indian tribes. ACF also provides technical assistance, supervision, and administration to fund beneficiaries that, in turn, are responsible for direct delivery of services. (ACF, 2013)
There are many barriers and issues in providing the grants to the end recipients for which the initiative is taken to implement the interoperability. “Interoperability” is acknowledged as a national effort of technological and programmatic coordination to mitigate and even diminish those barriers. Today, the emergence of “interoperable technology” provides the opportunity to unite systems cross wide...