openEHR supports the sharing of EHR data using an XML-based data format, which can be easily interpreted by off-the-shelf XML based technologies. openEHR is also compatible with a number of other standards, as messages from HL7 v2.x and the HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) can be translated into openEHR.

The openEHR archetypes are one of the keys to ensuring interoperability between EHR systems. Archetypes can be used to enforce consistent approaches to sharing groups of information. For example, a single medication archetype can be used consistently across a number of different compositions to ensure a common way of describing medicines. This is akin to being able to ensure that across a large organisation all 2000 paper forms use the same address block, thus making information from different sites truly comparable.

Beyond sharing of content, openEHR offers the advantage of using a consistent approach to both transmission and storage of EHR content. The openEHR approach does not suffer from the impedance mismatch where transmitted EHR data needs to be disassembled and reassembled in a totally different way to be stored in the EHR database.