Intro to FHIR

#What is FHIR?

FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, is a standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically. FHIR defines a set of resources that represent different aspects of healthcare information, such as patients, medications, and clinical observations.

Each resource is defined using a set of standardized data elements, or "fields", that describe the information being represented.

Flexpa API offers access to healthcare data using the FHIR standard in JSON format.

#How to pull patient data

This guide will walk through the steps required to pull all data on a patient that a payer has made available. We recommend starting here to gain a sense of the availability and formatting of patient FHIR data.

#Prerequisites

Ensure you have completed the quickstart and obtained a patient access token. All interactions with the FHIR API require authentication.

#1. Read Patient resource

To begin, make a GET request to the Patient resource. This request will pull basic data on a patient and will typically include a name, phone, email, member ID, address etc.

#Example request to Patient

ACCESS_TOKEN=flexpa-link-access-token

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Patient/$PATIENT_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

View a sample response.

#2. Patient $everything

The example request in Step 1 may have returned the referenced resource that you need.

However, you likely will want information beyond just core demographics, such as claims or clinical data.

FHIR defines a useful Patient $everything operation that can enhance our requests by retrieving all of the resources that belong to a patient:

ACCESS_TOKEN=flexpa-link-access-token

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Patient/$PATIENT_ID/$everything" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

#3. Search other resources

Steps 1 and 2 targeted the Patient resource. To pull as much data as possible on a patient, we can search for the resources that Patient $everything does not return:

#Example requests to other resources

ACCESS_TOKEN=flexpa-link-access-token

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Device" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Location" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Medication" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Organization" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/Practitioner" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

curl "https://api.flexpa.com/fhir/PractitionerRole" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

#Read vs. Search

In the guide above, we demonstrated examples of both Read and Search operations.

#Read

Reading a resource in FHIR refers to retrieving the details of a single resource instance. For example, you might want to read the details of a patient, medication, or a specific clinical observation.

Reading requires knowledge of the resource ID ahead of time. See more about reading resources.

#Search

Searching in FHIR allows you to find and retrieve multiple resources based on specific search criteria or filters. This operation is handy when you want to locate resources that match certain conditions or attributes, such as finding all patients with a specific condition, retrieving all medications prescribed by a particular practitioner, or searching for observations within a specific date range.

Searching does NOT require knowledge of any resource IDs ahead of time. All of Flexpa's supported FHIR resources are searchable. See more about searching resources.

#Resources List

The following table lists all the FHIR resources supported by Flexpa.

Name	Description	JSON example
AllergyIntolerance	Risk of adverse response unique to individual from substance exposure.	JSON example
Bundle	A Bundle is a container for a collection of resources.	JSON example
CarePlan	A care plan outlines how one or more healthcare providers plan to treat an individual, a group, or a community for a set period, potentially for a specific ailment or set of ailments.	JSON example
CareTeam	The Care Team consists of individuals and organizations involved in coordinating and providing care for a patient.	JSON example
Condition	A clinical condition, problem, diagnosis, or other event, situation, issue, or clinical concept that has risen to a level of concern.	JSON example
Coverage	Financial instrument which may be used to reimburse or pay for health care products and services.	JSON example
Device	A type of a manufactured item that is used in the provision of healthcare.	JSON example
DiagnosticReport	Diagnostic reports contain the results and interpretation of tests performed on patients, groups, devices, or specimens. They provide clinical context, including requesting and provider information.	JSON example
DocumentReference	A reference to a document of any kind for any purpose. Provides metadata about the document so that the document can be discovered and managed.	JSON example
Encounter	An interaction between a patient and healthcare provider(s) for the purpose of providing healthcare service(s) or assessing the health status of a patient.	JSON example
ExplanationOfBenefit	Claim details; adjudication details from the processing of a Claim; and optionally account balance information, for informing the subscriber of the benefits provided.	JSON example
Goal	Describes the intended objective(s) for a patient, group or organization care, for example, weight loss, restoring an activity of daily living, meeting a process improvement objective, etc.	JSON example
Immunization	Describes the event of a patient being administered a vaccine or a record of an immunization as reported by a patient, a clinician or another party.	JSON example
Location	Details and position information for a physical place where services are provided and resources and participants may be stored, found, contained, or accommodated.	JSON example
Medication	This resource is primarily used for the identification and definition of a medication for the purposes of prescribing, dispensing, and administering a medication as well as for making statements about medication use.	JSON example
MedicationDispense	Indicates that a medication product is to be or has been dispensed for a named person/patient.	JSON example
MedicationRequest	An order or request for both supply of the medication and the instructions for administration of the medication to a patient.	JSON example
Observation	Measurements and simple assertions made about a patient, device or other subject.	JSON example
OperationOutcome	An OperationOutcome resource contains information about the success, failure, or processing issues of an action that occurred in the system.	JSON example
Organization	Includes companies, institutions, corporations, departments, community groups, healthcare practice groups, payer/insurer, etc.	JSON example
Patient	Demographics and other administrative information about an individual receiving care or other health-related services.	JSON example
Practitioner	A person who is directly or indirectly involved in the provisioning of healthcare.	JSON example
PractitionerRole	A specific set of Roles/Locations/specialties/services that a practitioner may perform at an organization for a period of time.	JSON example
Procedure	An action that is or was performed on or for a patient.	JSON example
Provenance	Provenance of a resource is a record that describes entities and processes involved in producing and delivering or otherwise influencing that resource.	JSON example