Newly launched FHIR APIs could lead to next digital transformation in healthcare sector

UTRECHT, Netherlands - Oct. 6, 2021 - PRLog -- In recent years, the healthcare sector has become very dependent on healthcare IT systems, often with limited integration possibilities. This means that data streams, such as data from (PROM) questionnaires and medical devices, can often not be automatically integrated into the Electronic Patient Record (EPD) or Electronic Health Record (EHR). The lack of possibilities to connect healthcare IT leads to a large administrative burden and is more prone to human errors. The lack of automation and interoperability also explain why many sectors have undergone a digital transformation, and why even in highly digitally advanced countries medical doctors still spend on average nearly half (49.2%) of their time on administrative tasks (Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2016/09/07/doctors-wasting-over-two-thirds-of-their-time-doing-paperwork/?sh=572a15c65d7b)).

Information standards and API's are crucial for healthcare IT
Anno 2021, this problem can be solved by API's in combination with the FHIR information standard. Governments worldwide are promoting the FHIR standard as a common language to facilitate the transmission of medical data.

Open HealthHub launches the first publicly available end-to-end encryption APIs based on the international FHIR standard. The APIs allow healthcare providers to integrate eHealth apps and medical devices in their digital infrastructure, and data from those sources to be automatically added in a structured manner to any system of choice that supports the FHIR standard. This allows data from medical devices to be monitored remotely and the patient's healthcare record to be updated with the data from it. The APIs can also be used to add data from (PROM) questionnaires to the patient's record.

Sandbox
The APIs, including documentation, code examples and clients in 8 commonly used programming languages are available for developers and other IT-specialists at developer.openhealthhub.com. In a sandbox, a virtual testing environment, developers can create the connections between the applications and medical devices, test them and launch them.

During a premiere on YouTube on 7 October, the API platform will officially be launched. Martijn Verhoeven, Founder and CTO of Open HealthHub will demonstrate the new APIs to the FHIR community.

Data integrity
The data that is brought from one system to another by the APIs is end-to-end encrypted. This prevents sensitive patient data from falling into the wrong hands and guarantees the highest standards for data integrity. Believing in the FAIR (Findable, Accessable, Interoperable and Reusable) data principle and data integrity, the young company is quick to point out that they themselves are not able to access the data that is transmitted over their digital hub or APIs, and that they don't use the data for any commercial purposes. Only the patient and the healthcare provider actually own the data.