Healthcare Information Systems Evolve and Embrace the API-led Development Approach
By: Ashwin Datla
Tags: Technology, Data Science, Healthcare, Digital Transformation, API

The stage is set for Healthcare Information Systems to evolve and embrace the API-led development approach in order to create clinical applications for use across the enterprise. The primary drivers for evolution in the Healthcare Information Systems are:

- Patient-centric healthcare

— CMS-mandated meaningful use of EHRs

— Better decision making

— Transaction modernization solutions

The Healthcare Information Systems of today are not ready to realize these shifts. A new architectural approach is needed to move Healthcare Information Systems away from heavy reliance on HL7 and custom integrations, to embracing the API-driven architecture model. This is where Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) APIs have introduced a new standard to exchange Electronic Health Records (EHRs). FHIRs use of APIs allows implementers to easy integrate, request, and transfer data between various healthcare systems.

The basic building blocks of FHIR APIs are base resource pools that are categorized and interact with each other to build a complete picture. This defines the way information can be exchanged between different healthcare systems. The ultimate goal of FHIR APIs is easy exchange of information not only within the organization, but also to make Hospital Information Systems accessible to third party applications that provide more engaging patient experiences.

These applications are called SMART-Substitutable Medical Apps and Reusable Technology-apps which are applications that run on FHIR APIs and consume information from the Hospital Information Systems to deliver patient-centric healthcare.

How organizations can use API management platforms to leverage FHIR APIs securely:

TIBCO’s API management platform, Mashery, has the ability to enable healthcare providers to host their FHIR APIs. Mashery’s authentication support for OAuth2 and reduced coding requirements enable healthcare providers to accelerate their implementation of FHIR APIs. This implementation provides true flexibility to healthcare providers and allows them to accelerate implementations of modern clinical applications.

Mashery allows healthcare providers to expose their Electronic Health Records (EHRs) seamlessly with third party applications as well as manage partner applications. Effectively, the healthcare provider can provide access to an App Store which has Smart Applications that a customer can use to interact with the Hospital Information System to put the patient at the center of the healthcare experience. All of this can be done without comprising security using Mashery’s support for OAuth2.

Roadmap to reaching complete FHIR API compliance:

HL7s prominence in Healthcare Information Systems makes it difficult for providers to shift stable and operational systems to a new architecture overnight. Hospital information systems of today have many critical systems and processes which are interdependent and are already running on HL7 integrations. These interfaces and systems are mission critical and can cause a lot of headaches when considering the switch to FHIR APIs. This is where TIBCO’s best-in-class integration solutions can solve these issues by packing existing integrations as REST interfaces without any disruption to critical processes. TIBCO BusinessWorks comes with a plug-in for HL7 messaging which allows organizations to deploy cloud native healthcare integrations.

This allows for a seamless staggered implementation of FHIR across the Healthcare Information System. The implementation in general goes through five different levels from basic framework to clinical reasoning, which can be easily achieved using TIBCO’s enterprise solutions.

TIBCO can help healthcare systems on their journey from API creation to API management and integration capabilities:

-On-premise with TIBCO BusinessWorks

-In public and private PaaS with TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition

-In the cloud with TIBCO Cloud Integration and TIBCO Mashery Enterprise

API management and gateway capabilities:

-As a SaaS solution with TIBCO Mashery

-On-premise with TIBCO Mashery Local

Learn more about TIBCO Mashery API management platform and request a free 30-day Mashery trial.