A closer look at FHIR
In our first look, we discussed the FHIR® in general and the possibilities it holds over the improvement of interoperability in Healthcare. Today we’ll have a look on how developers are creating solutions & their impacts on healthcare. Get to know FHIR® basics.
As you know, FHIR® is a standard for exchanging healthcare records electronically. This helps better communication between healthcare systems. Also, this comes in handy where automated machine-based processes are gaining popularity since a nationwide standard would be a huge support on the automation. The ‘resource’ is called the main building block of the FHIR®. You can learn more about the technical aspects of FHIR® from HL7®.
FHIR® Solutions
As of 2021, there is a pool of solutions that are built around FHIR® and more products are emerging continuously. In fact, this can be marked as one of the goals of CMS regulation where providers and patients have the ability to choose solutions from a wide variety of solutions based on their preferences. FHIR® escalates the competition which would ultimately result in a marketplace with better and more advanced solutions.
These solutions have many differences with each other yet the basic concept remains the same as the better interoperability for electronic healthcare records.
Basically, there are two main types of healthcare developer organizations.
● Organizations that provide a solution on FHIR® among many other products that are non-related to FHIR®
● Organizations that solely serve the solution/s on FHIR® or on a regulation based on FHIR®. (most likely on CMS & ONC)
These two types of organizations have presented their solutions that are built on FHIR® while trying to serve specific segments of the FHIR® market. Even Though the solutions are focused on specific niche needs of the market, most of them bear the same set of fundamental features under the layers.
FHIR servers
In simple terms, a server means an algorithm where a relevant response is generated when a request is sent. This applies for the FHIR® servers as well since it basically does the job within FHIR® standards. A typical FHIR® server returns the data as requested, through the pre-built APIs. This empowers the developers to create more standardized web applications that can manipulate data without worrying about the device or the operating systems of the end user.
APIs & FHIR
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a piece of software that has been programmed to perform data exchange between different systems or modules. APIs act as a transportation service for the data to pass through and deliver the data to the requested application. The beauty in the APIs is that once an API is published according to the standards, any developer can use the same API on many different applications & achieve the same level of performance and functionality intended.
APIs play a critical role in FHIR® solutions as APIs are the driving force of the interconnected applications. Many of the FHIR® solutions use the APIs to pass data between backend data repositories (electronic health records) to the frontend of the applications.
Collaborative platforms for app developers
Some FHIR® solutions consist of platforms where developers can actively engage with the community in designing & sharing the FHIR® APIs. There are platforms to hold FHIR® projects, share & work on them with a team. Developers can contribute to public projects and share the knowledge with other developers. These platforms would be a major boost in elevating the popularity and creating a rich developer community around FHIR®.
FHIR data repositories
There are solutions that focus on the data repository and its data processing capabilities taking a different approach than providing a platform to collaborate on FHIR®. They offer a space to store electronic health records and access them using standardized APIs which probably may be a head start for anyone rather than building a FHIR® compliant database from the scratch for their products. These repositories bear the same concept as cloud storage but operate within FHIR® standards and provide additional features specific to FHIR®.
FHIR applications development
Undoubtedly the goal of enjoying a unified data exchange framework for healthcare will rest upon the success at developing such applications. SMART (Substitutable Medical Apps, Reusable Technology) is an initiative focused on this matter specifically providing guidelines for 3rd party app developers to create apps that can be connected to EHR systems according to the FHIR® standards. SMART closely aligns with FHIR® and defines how 3rd party applications should launch, connect & access the electronic healthcare data with a system.
This will promote applications on both desktop and mobile devices. Creating SMART mobile apps would help FHIR® to reach more audiences with active engagement than just a web application on desktop.
We would be able to achieve the perfect digital healthcare frameworks and systems if everyone joined their hands together in creating it. More awareness of FHIR® and it’s capabilities is much appreciated among the health IT community as it leads to innovation of ideas. The ongoing momentum around FHIR® is really firing up the Healthcare solution providers which new projects are emerging aiming at the customers who are willing to be compliant with CMS regulations. And it is a good sign since all these solutions will ultimately benefit health IT developers, Payers, Health providers and most importantly the patients.
