The research above explores the challenges facing EHR consumers and developers with regards to EHR interoperability as well as Electronic Medical Record integration APIs affect EHR interoperability. In this line, this research has been guided by two main research questions, a primary and a secondary question. The primary research question was: what are the challenges facing EHR consumers and developers in terms of EHR interoperability? For this question, the null hypothesis is that there are no challenges facing EHR consumers and developers with regards to EHR interoperability. However, this research hypothesized that indeed challenges on EHR interoperability indeed exist among EHR consumers and developers. On the same note, the secondary research question was: how does Electronic Medical Record integration APIs affect EHR interoperability? The null hypothesis for this question is that no association exists between Electronic Medical Record integration APIs and EHR interoperability. Nonetheless, this research hypothesized that Electronic Medical Record integration APIs will either increase or reduce EHR interoperability.

For the benefits, the findings show that a majority of healthcare providers view EHR interoperability as a useful tool that assists them to access health data. Furthermore, most of them also believe that EHR interoperability enhances the coordination of care, enables the connection between various healthcare facilities, improves patient safety and saves time.

A significant similarity or consistency is observed upon comparing these findings to those from past researches. As stated earlier, the realization of interoperability can be attributed essentially to the development of a Nation-wide Health Information Exchange (HIE) that entails the distribution of electronic patient data. Like in the above findings, Papa et al., (2010) purported that HIE enhances the quality of medical care accorded to the patients, their well-being and outcomes owing to a reduction in the chances of miscalculations occurring when treating them (13). Similarly, as the results showed that most of the healthcare providers believe EHR interoperability enables them to access health information online, Papa et al., (13) also stipulated that this interoperability facilitates patients engagement in their personalized treatments through online means thereby eliminating the need for queuing and paperwork. In so doing, this system saves time and allows for more patient-doctor communication.

A key distinction, however, is that the results in this research do not indicate how EHR interoperability affects communication like several of the past researches. For instance, according to the outcomes of a study by Esmaeilzadeh and Sambasivan (2017), the implementation of HIE solutions positively affects patient satisfaction and communication (14). Equally, Chao et al., (2013) stated that interorganization sharing of data is a vital healthcare program that ameliorates communication between physicians and their patients through information technology system (12).