Interoperability is the ability of two or more systems to exchange information and then use what has been received in their work. Simply being connected is not enough. Two health systems may both transmit a laboratory result, but if one treats a value as milligrams and the other interprets it as grams, a successful connection can still produce an error.
The idea is close to compatibility, but not identical to it. Compatibility often means that components can coexist or connect. Interoperability goes further: data structure, units, identity and meaning must remain usable after transfer. A shared format answers ‘how should this be read?’; shared semantics answers ‘what has been read?’
Nor does interoperability require every system to become the same. Each may preserve its internal design while maintaining the necessary common constraints at the interface. Its value lies precisely here: differences need not disappear for reliable cooperation to emerge.
https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai/foundations-semantic-interoperability-and-integration
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