Stream: patient empowerment
Topic: Finding FHIR in app store?
Dave deBronkart (Jun 19 2019 at 14:40):
My blogs from last week are getting a bit of interest, so now I want to point people to a list of mobile apps they can get that that use FHIR.
Searching FHIR on the iPhone app store draws a blank. Should we encourage developers to add it as a tag or something? Or, probably more dependable, have a page on FHIR.org that we can link to.
The current SMART on FHIR app page is uncurated and mostly has things that are NOT mobile apps a consumer would want to use.
Or is it too early to be encouraging consumer interest?
Michele Mottini (Jun 19 2019 at 15:05):
Suggest Coral (https://coral.health/product/), My Links (https://www.mylinks.com/) and myFHR (https://careevolution.com/myfhr/)
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:03):
If you'd like to access the Apple consumer facing apps, do the following:
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:05):
Step 1 - Open the Apple App Store on your iPhone.
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Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:05):
This must be done on the iPhone, not on the desktop or web, as HealthRecords are currently only available on the iPhone.
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:06):
Step 2 - Click the 'Apps' button in the Footer, and scroll to the Top Categories. Then click 'See All'.
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Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:07):
Step 3 - Select the 'Medical' category.
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Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:07):
Step 4 - Click 'See All' next to 'Apps That Work with Health Records'.
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Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:09):
Step 5 - Browse through the ~7 apps that use HealthRecords, and can access the ~500 hospitals and ~6500 locations (unofficial) via FHIR.
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Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:10):
Currently, they include:
- One Drop Diabetes Management
- Medisafe Medication Management
- Glow Fertility Tracker
- Heal - House Calls on Demand
- MyDataHelps
- Medici
- Clinic Q
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 16:10):
Hopefully in the next week or two, the list will also include Symptomatic Timelines.
Dave deBronkart (Jun 19 2019 at 20:41):
Thank you, @Abigail Watson ! I heard part of that earlier (from @Ricky Bloomfield I think) but this is the clearest / most detailed.
Anyone have anything comparable for Android apps or anything else?
(The post I've been asked to write is due in 2-3 weeks so there's time to add, and besides, good posts get read later, too)
Ricky Bloomfield (Jun 19 2019 at 20:47):
@Abigail Watson FYI, if you would like any additional apps added to this list, please let me know after it has been approved and I can relay to our App Store team so they are aware and can consider for inclusion. This isn’t a comprehensive list.
Michele Mottini (Jun 19 2019 at 20:49):
Those are the apps that get FHIR data via Apple HealthKit, aren't they? Not those that get FHIR data directly (both Coral and myFHR do not show up)
Dave deBronkart (Jun 19 2019 at 20:50):
@Ricky Bloomfield @Abigail Watson are the ones you listed all using FHIR? Like, there's no chance an app marked "uses health records" could appear that wasn't using FHIR? i.e., does that category ONLY include things connected to HealthKit, and does healthkit ONLY get data via FHIR?
I see that @Michele Mottini had a related post while I'm typing this.
Brendan Keeler (Jun 19 2019 at 20:56):
Those would be apple centric apps, rather than web based (like 1up or MyLinks) or Android (coral)
Brendan Keeler (Jun 19 2019 at 20:56):
Apple health records centric*
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 20:57):
Well, sort of. Symptomatic is a web based app riding in a Cordova/PhoneGap container that connects to HealthRecords. Best of both worlds. So those distinctions are becoming blurry.
Abbie Watson (Jun 19 2019 at 20:58):
Yes, most of the existing apps are currently apple centric, in that they're Swift or Objective C, I suppose. But I know of a two or three, maybe a half dozen, other javscript/node apps that are in the pipeline using the Cordova container.
Josh Mandel (Jun 19 2019 at 21:00):
FYI @Dan Gottlieb , who is also working on an open source web app, mostly for technically inclined patients who want to locally download/review their own data
Dave deBronkart (Jun 19 2019 at 21:00):
Those would be apple centric apps, rather than web based (like 1up or MyLinks) or Android (coral)
At some point, to enable people dipping their toes in without getting frustrated, we (generic) will need a list of apps when feasible, filterable by platform. (Worst thing ever in a product introduction is to get people frothing so they go searching and come up frustrated ... until it's easy to find, we hold back on the frothers.)
Ricky Bloomfield (Jun 19 2019 at 21:00):
@Dave deBronkart Correct, these are apps that access the FHIR records directly from the device (that have already been downloaded by the user from Argonaut-compliant FHIR endpoints).
Dave deBronkart (Jun 19 2019 at 21:15):
Are there other apps in the App Store that people might construe as "using health records" via FHIR? The category description doesn't make clear that these are only HealthKit connected apps.
Debi Willis (Jun 19 2019 at 21:38):
Dave, It’s important to understand that web-based applications that are built as “mobile responsive” can be used on any device. MyLinks is web-based but we built it to look nice on any device regardless of the operating system. We did that to enable all patients to gather their data regardless of whether or not they have a smart phone. Patients with androids or iPhones or any device that can get to the Internet can use MyLinks. If you’re making a list, please make sure to identify where a patient can use the application... not necessarily the platform where the code is stored.
Brendan Keeler (Jun 20 2019 at 00:54):
Dave, two others to consider:
1up Health
CarePassport
All have their flaws (the failure to retrieve records consistently obviously being the biggest).
Dave deBronkart (Jun 20 2019 at 00:58):
All, thank you... We have quickly returned to where I was last Monday :slight_smile:. When I get home from chorus I will dig out that stub of a Google Sheet, started then, and we can start hammering it into shape.
Dave deBronkart (Jun 20 2019 at 01:02):
I will encourage thinking of these issues from the perspective of the person in need: "I have a Brand Q tablet. What can I use?"
Brendan Keeler (Jun 20 2019 at 06:15):
There's three perspectives. Apple, Android and web. Brand Q fits into one of those buckets unless you're rocking a Nook or early stage Amazon fire, in which case you're in the web bucket and don't know it.
Dave deBronkart (Jun 20 2019 at 15:15):
Of course I understand "iOS, Android, or Web," in principle, but that's where user ratings can be a slap in the face. I'll stick my neck out and assert that if a site isn't optimized for mobile, it can be a royal pain to use. And even on so-called "mobile" there's a big difference between my small-screen four-year-old smartphone and a modern "phablet" or iPad Pro.
I don't want to overcomplicate the UI when strangers come searching - especially since that often happens when someone's in the middle of a stressful situation. OTOH I do want to give credit to developers who put in the extra work - often difficult - to really excel at usability on smaller screens!
(My thoughts on this advanced rapidly a few years ago when, for my own website, I bit the bullet and adopted a new WordPress theme ... JEEZE it's a lot of extra work to rethink screen real estate when width is between X and Y, and between Y and Z, and smaller than X or bigger than Z! ANNOYING! People who do a good job of this deserve recognition, because an app's job is not just to go fetch the data. It's to help the user.)
Brendan Keeler (Jun 21 2019 at 00:46):
That's a good point. Mobile web is a fourth category
Virginia Lorenzi (Jul 23 2019 at 02:32):
Adding to @Michele Mottini list: Apple Health, 1upHealth, medlio. The SMART on FHIR gallery could be pointed to but I am not sure if its maintained. The ones Michele and I mention are all working apps. @Abigail Watson - are Apple's apps FHIR apps?
Josh Mandel (Jul 23 2019 at 02:33):
The gallery is maintained, though it is an open repository and anyone can add a listing. (We do not have editorial criteria that cause us to prevent people from adding their own applications.)
Dave deBronkart (Jul 23 2019 at 13:14):
A note about scope of my inquiry: when I first asked about this, I was thinking solely about end-user / consumer apps, which was also my perspective when thinking about patients in THIS community (chat.fhir.org) and more general discussions of patient involvement in FHIR.
A conceptual breakthrough happened when I realized that for DevDays (and probably for this chat community) patient innovators are a whole different beast. They, by definition, can be assumed to have interest in technical details, higher capacity for technical wording, etc. Rollout to the world of potential patient innovators is a whole different thing from rollout to consumers, and I propose we make that explicit and clear in our discussions within HL7, particularly the proposed patient innovator workgroup.
Bart Carlson (Jul 23 2019 at 15:41):
While there are lots of good consumer app only solutions being brought to market, there are also a number of much richer enterprise solutions with consumer app front-ends that are also being brought to market. So, why would we want to limit our scope to the consumer "app only" solutions?
David Hay (Jul 24 2019 at 18:14):
so you're thinking the target of the devdays event is developers building patient focussed apps, rather than (just) patients themselves?
Bart Carlson (Jul 25 2019 at 02:45):
Personally, I'm hoping we have a good mix of both developers and patients attending.
Dave deBronkart (Jul 28 2019 at 05:20):
Again, I beg y'all to be explicit about intent when you mean specifically patient innovators (like @Mikael Rinnetmäki or Mike Morris or Dana Lewis) vs the non-developer user/consumer of apps developed by others.
Abbie Watson (Aug 28 2019 at 05:06):
Catching up on old threads... @Virginia Lorenzi - sort of. Apple HealthRecord apps are storing records fetched via SMART on FHIR as JSON objects on the iPhone. HealthKit apps can access those records and get FHIR data types returned to them, but it involves a proprietary API. I would describe Apple apps as using FHIR data types and resources, but not abiding by the other aspects of the FHIR spec; certainly not the HTTP portion.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
