Standards in sync: five principles to achieve semantic interoperability for TRUE research for healthcare

Effective and meaningful exchange of data is pivotal for patient care, informed decision-making, and advancements in research and technology. This opinion piece explores the critical role of semantic interoperability (SI) in ensuring meaningful health data sharing across diverse systems. To do so, the paper put forward five simple principles; i) reuse existing standards where possible, ii) avoid mapping, iii) implement standards at the start of a project, iv) participate in standards development activities with standards development organizations (SDOs), and v) work toward harmonization of standards across SDOs, for semantic meaning in support of Trustworthy, Reusable, Understandable data Elements (TRUE) research data for healthcare.