This Technical Report describes a set of key characteristics to achieve interoperability and compatibility in trusted health information interchange between communicant application systems.

The key characteristics describe inter-application interoperability needs of the healthcare community, in particular the subject of care, the healthcare professional/caregiver, the healthcare provider organization, its business units and the integrated delivery network.

The key characteristics offer criteria for standards developers and implementers of standards for messaging and communications in the healthcare domain and provide a guide for software developers and vendors, healthcare providers and end users.