Background

HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a healthcare industry-wide protocol for exchanging and storing healthcare information. The FHIR standard created in 2012 allows those who need access to specific health data – from clinicians to consumers to insurance – to have one familiar way of working with such data regardless of their specific group or state in the US. Based on the REST API approach, FHIR is a developer-friendly way of working with and organizing healthcare data, with the goal of breaking down barriers for healthcare data exchange between groups.

Problem

While the HL7 FHIR data standard was a landmark innovation in standardizing healthcare data across the industry, it was designed for use by developers. As health data continues to grow across practitioners, consumers, and an increasing application base, exchanging healthcare data is becoming a task that more people may be required to handle. Even though FHIR servers have a consistent design and architecture via REST APIs, actually accessing that data and making it useful is another task entirely. Working with APIs can be confusing for non-technical folks, and connecting the right subset of data in the needed format  – whether that’s a spreadsheet, internal database, or even a new FHIR API to share – can be a huge challenge for practitioners and cause massive slow downs in organizations . In an industry where speed can make the difference in saving lives, healthcare organizations can’t be constantly waiting on data requests to get the clinical and patient data they need.

Solution

Nexla is a data platform built for no/low-code self service and working with data in any format to get it to any system needed. This includes REST APIs, and, more specifically, FHIR APIs. Working with the FHIR API standard is straightforward and quick in Nexla, which unlocks the data in FHIR servers and makes it easy to work with, slice, transform, and send data to any destination, including databases, warehouses, spreadsheets, and more. Nexla even enables the opposite use case, exposing any data as a FHIR API. With the click of just a few buttons, any FHIR-formatted database can be created as an API on the fly, ready to share with internal or external stakeholders.

1. Connect to any FHIR Server

To access the data in any FHIR server, simply create a new REST API source in Nexla and input the URL and any needed credentials. Save the source, and Nexla will automatically organize the data it finds into a Nexset, a data product that makes it easy to share, transform, and send data to any type of destination.

2. Work with Health Data in Nexla

Once you have created the Nexset, slicing, transforming, and selecting any specific subsets of the data by filtering is simple on the transformation screen. Use the pre-packaged drag-and-drop transformations, or data engineers can input custom transformations for complicated and custom operations.

3. Send Health Data Wherever

Once you’re satisfied with the Nexset, just click Send to Destination to select anywhere you need your data to go. The destination can be a data warehouse, database, spreadsheet, or even a stream to a webhook for real-time updates and data flow.

4. Create New FHIR APIs On The Fly

Creating a FHIR API to share internally or externally is just as easy in Nexla. Just add your FHIR formatted database as a source, and after creating the Nexset, click Show Data Feed API to instantly create an API through Nexla. Then simply share the sample request or URL with whoever needs it.

Conclusion

For healthcare organizations, having a powerful and easy way to work with FHIR data in Nexla saves lives, time, and money. Data engineers, as the actual consumers of the health data, are unblocked and can connect and access the FHIR server themselves, safely and easily. This enables rapid access and exchange of health data, completing the final piece of the puzzle in the initial vision of the FHIR standard. With Nexla, FHIR server health data can be endlessly exchanged, transformed, and used to return the focus to providing care rather than wrangling data.

Want to see how Nexla can transform the way FHIR health data is used in your organization? Request a free demo and trial today.