The health care "system" in America is not a system. It's a disconnected collection of large and small medical businesses, health care professionals, treatment centers, hospitals, and all who provide support for them. Each player may have its own internal structure for gathering and sharing information, but nothing ties those isolated structures into an interoperable national system capable of making information easily shared and compared.

Interoperable systems are invisible but essential. We have come to depend on many. When you use a cell phone to talk with a friend who uses a different cell service, you are using an interoperable system. Your ATM card is good not only at virtually all banks nationwide, but thanks to a secure interoperable system, you can use it to buy everything from groceries to gasoline.

These systems work because the telephone and banking sectors have developed methods and standards that allow participants in their systems to easily access and exchange information while the companies operate independently and compete vigorously.

Cell phone providers are keenly aware of their competitor's quality of service. Banks closely monitor competitive rates. Customers are able to compare both quality and cost. Value-driven consumer choice, in turn, drives greater competition and increasingly better service.

America's health care system is embracing transparency; by doing so, it is creating a powerful force for change.