Let’s cover the top three real-time FHIR applications in healthcare. But before that, know about FHIR in healthcare.
The advanced healthcare industry has recognized introducing the HL7 FHIR standard, a next-generation standard framework produced by HL7. The FHIR standard is widely used in integration projects throughout the world.
There was a need for a standard that was organized, highly standardized, and easy to grasp, given the limitations of prior healthcare information exchange standards for non-XML segments, V2, V3, and CDA. FHIR is anticipated to overcome the current standards’ severe restrictions.
What is FHIR in healthcare?
FHIR is an interoperability standard for sharing and exchanging health information across enterprises or specialists with various applications. In addition, it facilitates access to the data by medical practitioners.
It has many potentials to develop an application-based approach to interoperability. For example, HL7 International created and fostered the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource data standard.
FHIR was designed with the complexity of healthcare data in mind, using a contemporary, internet-based method to integrate disparate aspects.
It will assist developers and professionals in developing more intuitive and user-friendly applications integrated with web browser capabilities. In addition, it provides quick and secure access to vital data regardless of whether EHR or program is used.
Three real-time FHIR applications in healthcare:
In healthcare, FHIR has many applications that help build and manage healthcare data securely in a system. But, here is some FHIR applications that depend on real-time scenarios.
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Personal Health Record:
With the development of patient empowerment, more citizens request access to their medical records, and many are using fitness apps to track their health. As a result, it has resulted in a need for healthcare professionals to integrate Personal Health Records (PHRs).
Incorporate data from fitness or mobile devices, such as blood pressure monitors or ‘standalone’ tablet or phone apps, into existing electronic health records (EHRs). A new generation lightweight technology stack is used to accomplish the PHR process.
That must communicate data to several third-party platforms. As a result, small projects often take less time to develop than large healthcare integration initiatives. intelyConnect offers a no-code and low-code approach to healthcare data integration and interoperability.
PHR can assist your patients in better managing their treatment.
For example, patients can easily update and share their records when they have vital health information in electronic form, such as immunizations, lab results, and screening due dates.
Role of HL7 FHIR in PHR:
The consumer’s communication must be standardized to connect to multiple vendors. PHR and EHR systems depend on their condition and region. FHIR is the first healthcare exchange standard created with the modern REST and JSON toolset.
It enables data to be read, written, and queried, allowing for seamless integration of a device or small PHR with a larger PHR/EHR.
In addition, because of the ease of use of FHIR, a PHR or device development team can quickly implement it without needing to become specialists in EHRs or health communication protocols.
In health record-setting, FHIR apps have also standardized the usage of well-known security and log-on standards. As a result, it eliminates the need for each project to recreate this layer, leading to design errors.
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Healthcare Document sharing:
In the FHIR application in healthcare, sharing healthcare documents such as test results, imaging, radiology scans, and medical prescriptions is one of the most popular FHIR uses.
Therefore, a healthcare document sharing system is required, frequently based on IHE XDS standards. Healthcare document sharing is the most useful application in FHIR healthcare.
It reduces paperwork and makes it a less time-consuming process. However, mobile access to these critical documents is limited because this standard does not directly enable mobile applications or current REST interfaces.
The role of HL7 FHIR in healthcare document sharing:
IHE has now combined FHIR® with XDS to create the MHD (Mobile Health Documents) profile, enabling mobile devices and other resource-constrained systems to access an XDS Repository via MHD.
It is designed on top of standard FHIR resources that allow you to produce, store, and reference documents of all types, whether you’re using XDS/MHD.
FHIR goes beyond typical document sharing to provide structured clinical document functionality. It expresses all document-based use cases and is compatible with the widely popular HL7 CDA standard.
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Clinical Decision Support:
Clinical decision support (CDS) equips physicians, workers, patients, and others with knowledge. It also supports person-specific information that is intelligently filtered or provided at the right time to improve health and health care.
The role of decision support is becoming more prevalent in everyday clinical situations as healthcare digitization progresses.
Therefore, providing automated expert input to the business process is a fundamental benefit of computerized organized medical records. Clinical decision support (CDS) can impact healthcare quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness.
For example, drug interaction checking. Yet, despite widespread use, the functionality and knowledge bases may be restricted to a single system or provider.
The role of HL7 FHIR in clinical decision support:
FHIR can provide the essential analysis data standard and support common decision support interactions between various systems. In addition, it allows decision-support providers and clients to collaborate and plug and play.
Challenges of FHIR applications in healthcare:
With the help of these applications, we can overcome the challenges of FHIR in healthcare:
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Adoption will proceed at a glacial pace:
Although HL7 has long been a generally established healthcare information sharing standard, FHIR is still a young and vibrant standard. FHIR’s effectiveness is undeniable, but adoption is expected to be sluggish.
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Adoption expenses:
The cost of adoption might be complicated for large healthcare companies. As you prepare to implement FHIR, keep a few hurdles and issues in mind.
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Vendors’ potential threats:
The ability of FHIR to cut deployment timelines for common health records, which affects revenue, could compromise certain health IT vendors.
Conclusion:
By creating new pathways in mobile health apps, the introduction of FHIR enables unique solutions for enhanced interoperability. Nowadays, most healthcare organizations are interested in incorporating new healthcare technologies into their practice workflow.
With this kept in mind, intelyConnect provides the best HL7 FHIR SMART integration services and assists you in achieving the desired results. If you have any queries, schedule a demo with our team to learn about FHIR applications.