New research from a survey of digital health companies shows that most companies (73%) use standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) when integrating with electronic health records (EHRs) (Figure 1). In 2020, ONC finalized its Cures Act Final Rule, which codified the use of the Health Level 7 (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard for “certified APIs” that can enable secure, programmatic access to a patient’s electronic health information (EHI). These certified APIs standardize data connectivity and format requirements so that third-party applications, like smartphone apps, can expect the same functionality and patient data when connecting to any EHR with a certified API.
