Stream: social
Topic: Apple Announcement
Grahame Grieve (Jun 05 2018 at 23:23):
Some of you will have seen Apple's announcement: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/06/apple-opens-health-records-api-to-developers/
FYI, technical supporting documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/health_and_fitness_samples/accessing_health_records
Dave Carlson (Jun 06 2018 at 03:54):
I attended a tutorial today detailing use of the iOS Health Records API at the Apple WWDC. A video of the 40 minute presentation should be made available on the Apple WWDC web site.
Simone Heckmann (Jun 06 2018 at 06:25):
Does anyone know whether it's possible to use the API with FHIR >DSTU2 and any IG other than Argonaut?
Alexander Zautke (Jun 06 2018 at 06:44):
It is only available if you set the region of your iOS device to "United States". Even then it is only possible to read resources from a list of pre-selected providers. All of these are implementing Argonaut. The API itself seems to be build around Argonaut, too. If you look at HKFHIRResourceType in the documentation above, you'll see that only the resource types which are being used in Argonaut are currently supported.
Grahame Grieve (Jun 06 2018 at 06:49):
yes it's just extending their argonaut coverage.
Kevin Mayfield (Jun 06 2018 at 08:00):
Is their a plan for Argonaut/Apple moving from to STU3? (as the push in the UK is STU3, presume other EU countries are similar)
Grahame Grieve (Jun 06 2018 at 10:58):
Apple have not yet announced their plans for work outside USA, but that issue would arise in most countries, unless R4 comes first
Eric Haas (Jun 06 2018 at 15:37):
Argonaut ( really the Argonaut DataQuery profiles) has no plans to move to STU3 because is already done:
DataQuery Profile (DSTU2) ---> USCore Profile (STU3) (there is even a mapping!)
Pascal Pfiffner (Jun 06 2018 at 15:58):
For the video: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/706/
Michele Mottini (Jun 08 2018 at 03:51):
Apple is simply exposing the FHIR data they are getting from the providers, so to switch to STU3 (or R4) first all the EHR vendors have to support STU3 and then all the providers have to upgrade to STU3
Steve Melville (Jun 18 2018 at 20:28):
Does anyone know where I can get technical info on the provider-side of Apple's recently announced FHIR-based clinical records capability?
Apple claims to have an ecosystem of some 500+ healthcare providers that have the ability to upload FHIR-based clinical health records, but the focus of what I've discovered from Apple so far focuses on the consumer-side -- i.e., how IoS apps can use new HealthKit enhancements to gain access to and use FHIR-based clinical health records that have already been uploaded to their IoS device.
Kevin Shekleton (Jun 18 2018 at 20:34):
Information for providers as well as the registration link is available here: https://www.apple.com/healthcare/health-records/
Steve Melville (Jun 18 2018 at 20:40):
thanks for the fast response, Kevin!
Steve Melville (Jun 18 2018 at 21:39):
Hi @Kevin Shekleton. Hmm... so far that page turned out to be a dead-end. There's no technical content on that page, but I dutifully followed their suggestion to "get started" by registering my business. That just led me to the generic Apple Business Registry from which I could find zero info on provider-side FHIR-upload service.
So, alas, I'm back at square one in my quest to find the tech info I'm looking for. It's curious that Apple seems determined to keep this such a deep secret. I would have thought they would want adoption on the provider-side.
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2018 at 00:25):
I have a suspicion that 500 number is the current market cap/opportunity, not the actual implementation. There’s ~150 FHIR servers currently available via Open Epic, and an equal number from Cerner. Anybody who implements a SMART on FHIR app that conforms to the Argonaut spec and passes QA for both an Epic instance and a Cerner instance can then claim to have access opportunity into 300 hospitals. Because interoperability. Add in AllScripts and McKesson; or maybe Redox, etc and I bet one can get to 500. About 10% of the US hospital market, which is no small feat. But that might only be a few dozen hospitals in practice. I don’t think it’s a deep secret so much as interoperability allows companies to make certain types of market opportunity claims that are easy to misinterpret as existing client base.
Pascal Pfiffner (Jun 19 2018 at 12:14):
Hi @Steve Melville; you ran down the right path. When you click the "Register Now" button, you should be seeing a "Coming Soon" section with a link to email healthrecords@apple.com . You can contact us via that email if you're interested!
Pascal Pfiffner (Jun 19 2018 at 12:15):
Yes – 500 is the current actual number of hospitals and clinics you can connect to!
Steve Melville (Jun 19 2018 at 13:21):
Thanks for providing some context around market claims, @Abigail Watson. I realize I should have been clearer with my goal here. I wasn't really questioning Apple's figure of 500, I'm trying to figure out how to become the "501st". In other words, I am looking for technical documentation on the process and requirements for becoming a provider of such HealthRecords (e.g., what is required in order to publish our lab results and analysis in a way that allows our patients to pull them onto their IoS device).
I assume it involves standing up some sort of FHIR server. From your reply, I infer that perhaps that server need merely comply with the Argonaut IG. Is that really all there is to it?
Thanks for providing the Apple email address, @Pascal Pfiffner ! I've sent them my inquiry. Looking forward to their response.
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2018 at 13:34):
Yes, my understanding is that’s basically all thats involved. Stand up a server that maps your lab results to the FHIR protocol. Epic and Cerner will be happy to sell you products that will do it. There are HAPI and Meteor on FHIR servers if you want to build it yourself. Argonaut is a great place to start, but Aegis Touchstone conformance may be better (and to a lesser degree Project Crucible conformance).
Steve Melville (Jun 19 2018 at 13:42):
Cool. I already have HAPI running in my dev environment. I'll take a look at Argonaut, Touchstone & Crucible. Appreciate the quick response.
Michele Mottini (Jun 19 2018 at 14:11):
You need FHIR Argonaut and SMART authentication
Michele Mottini (Jun 19 2018 at 14:12):
Re the number of providers: Epic publishes a list of around 150 available end points, but some of those correspond to multiple locations / hospitals - and same for Cerner
Michele Mottini (Jun 19 2018 at 14:12):
So I think Apple Health currently connects to around 50 end points that correspond to 500 locations (hospitals, clinics, etc)
Steve Melville (Jun 19 2018 at 23:53):
Got it... thanks for the clarifications
Michele Mottini (Jun 20 2018 at 14:23):
...and when you have a working end point let me know...we would be interested in connecting our app to it
Dwight Walker (Jul 08 2018 at 14:52):
Some of you will have seen Apple's announcement: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/06/apple-opens-health-records-api-to-developers/
FYI, technical supporting documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/health_and_fitness_samples/accessing_health_records
Apple is way ahead on their GUI design of ehealth records mobile apps.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
