Introduction
Communication is the main pillar of any industry, and among many healthcare is one of them which entirely relies on it so the more advanced approaches of communication applications, the more benefits can be achieved by hospitals, patients, partners, and pharma departments. One such advanced approach is done by upgrading healthcare communications through the APIs discussed in detail in further sections.
Another justification for using healthcare APIs is to make it easier for hospitals and other organizations to operate efficiently when accessing data remotely and they enable data exchange between patients and healthcare providers, APIs are essential for healthcare IT communication.
After the pandemic, the demand for telemedicine and digital health solutions is expected to continue to grow, which will drive demand for integrated healthcare API in the upcoming years. Before API, it was challenging for healthcare providers to interact with patients and gather data as one-third of health centers and wellness systems stated that their efforts to exchange data were insufficient without API, according to a popular survey conducted in 2019.
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The size of the global healthcare API market, estimated at USD 210.9 million in 2019, is projected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% from 2020 to 2027, reaching USD 3306.02 million. The purchase of EHRs with API integration has increased, and these EHRs make it simple to access patient health information and improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. The primary drivers of an increase in API inclusion are a rise in the use of mobile apps and wearable technology that can access data from EHRs that allow to access the patient’s data thus internal upgrades regarding the communication workflows is necessary.
- The short version is that APIs facilitate information sharing and communication between various software applications.
- It is an intermediate layer that processes data transfer between the systems that allows access to the respective companies to open the application data and access it by the other third-party developers, partners, and internal staff or departments.
- In real-world applications, platforms like third-party APIs connect travel booking sites with various airline and hotel operating systems for simple data transfer. This integration enables access to pertinent data like flight times and lodging costs, which are then gathered and displayed on the booking website, sparing you from having to check out each airline’s or hotel’s lineup separately.
- Similarly to this, when a web platform gives users the option to log in automatically using their social media accounts, their API is simply connecting with its API to retrieve user data and authenticate entry.
How Do APIs for Healthcare Work?
Consider APIs as a combined interpreter and exchange system where the APIs exchange information between systems that don’t share the same operating system but contain data that both systems require to advance patient care. An API enables a hospital’s EHR system to communicate with a pharmacy’s database to access data that establishes patient coverage for a good or service.
By utilizing data standards that give operating systems a common language to speak, APIs direct how systems communicate and exchange information that allows operating systems to share information queries and responses, this system introduces comparable standards to ensure that nothing is lost in translation.
It’s not much different to use APIs in the medical field as the patient data is stored across a variety of platforms, including portals, lab EHRs, pharmacy EHRs, and so forth. Data is frequently stored in various formats and accessed using unrelated protocols as a result of this fragmented system, which can make it difficult to transfer information easily and obtain a complete picture of a patient’s medical history. To ensure that patient data is always operational and easily accessible, APIs act as entry points, connecting databases, sending queries, and retrieving responses.
API categories
By serving as entry points for systems to retrieve, store, and update information, APIs are helping healthcare depending on how it is set up, an API may secure data access or encourage communication and exchange between healthcare providers or within a single medical practice.
Healthcare APIs come in a variety of varieties:
Private APIs
Due to the complicated data structures in healthcare, patient records in the emergency rooms, and the labs may be scattered among various EHRs within a hospital but internal APIs integrate with the existing IT infrastructure of an organization to consolidate patient data thus helping more effectively in performing operations that can be made more efficient and data visibility is improved.
Outside APIs
These APIs enable patients to access and retrieve their data from hospital EHRs and other pertinent databases that offer doctors friendly companionship as well as using the built-in tools like symptom checkers and drug reference software that are integrated with EHRs provide helpful support at the point of care, promoting the provision of patient-centered care.
External APIs
Healthcare organizations or external vendors create and maintain third-party APIs where the patients or other health partners looking to exchange data to increase interoperability can access these APIs in the open. To collect data generated on a patient, hospitals can integrate wearable device APIs like Fitbit and Apple Health allowing relevant parties to access patient data gathered by remote monitoring devices and systems to continue the care cycle.
Benefits
APIs are exerting significant effort to ensure that the healthcare sector actively innovates and works together to achieve patient-centricity altering the way healthcare is provided:
- Access to Data
Data stored in EHRs, HIEs, ERPs, and other information deposits that are typically difficult to access are given a digital master key by APIs and authorized health players can promote care coordination and continuity by avoiding interoperability problems caused by unrelated software and data formats using APIs.
- Patient Participation
Patients now have a direct voice in their care by implementing APIs which connect data access and medical records that can be used when they want a second opinion on a proposed course of treatment, patients can independently share diagnostic and treatment information obtained from healthcare portals, health devices, and other platforms with new providers. Additionally, patients can use API structures to update pertinent or missing data in their provider’s EHR system.
- Security
They create a trusting relationship between entities that might otherwise be hesitant to give access to private patient data so hospitals, pharmacies, labs, and other healthcare facilities can open their information systems to a variety of devices using these secure entry points without having to worry about security breaches as APIs additionally offer a layer of data security against malicious intruders and online attacks.
- Innovation
They make sure that the healthcare sector is constantly evolving toward more innovation for patient care through secure code networks. Providers and developers are encouraged to work together on applications that enhance health operations and delivery by integrating the applications and programs that increase patient care efficiency and take advantage of the API structures already in place.
- Saving money
They are not only a more efficient and secure method of exchanging clinical and medical data, but they are also a more affordable one as the financial and manpower costs of directly integrating with these systems can be high because data is siloed in EHRs and HIEs. The time required to integrate with this infrastructure can also make it more difficult for pertinent providers to access data so to accelerate connectivity to health record systems, APIs serve as willing middlemen.
Challenges
APIs offer generally acknowledged enhancements to healthcare operations and results yet rendering many advantages health systems are only now beginning to adopt these interfaces and only 24% of healthcare companies had scaled up their API adoption, according to a 2021 report. The fact that healthcare IT systems are created using various technologies, data formats, and other unrelated components makes it difficult for operating systems to communicate with one another due to the lack of standardization. Similarly, organizations with technology fatigue may find it difficult to adopt a new system to their established exchange formats at first, even though healthcare is said to be in the third digital wave and organizations might experience trust issues when managing access to sensitive data.
Concerns about privacy, security, and legacy: Creating medical APIs is dependent on many medical regulations because Personal Health Information must always be kept secure because of this, many nations have their own set of laws governing medical data thus the development of health APIs is slowed down by these legal requirements because they must adhere to them.
Technical obstacles: Healthcare interoperability in medical organizations is hampered by a lack of technology resources, a lack of development standards, and the low scalability of medical software.
Financial Issues: The slow adoption of APIs in the healthcare industry is also a result of a lack of financial resources within healthcare organizations and a lack of knowledge regarding the investments necessary to enable healthcare interoperability and how, in the long run, it may benefit both the consumer and the healthcare provider.
Lack of IT Usability: A further difficulty in creating healthcare APIs is the absence of thorough documentation and efficient tools for testing, designing, and monitoring them.
Additional storage: It can take a long time for healthcare applications to continuously pull data from various sources free up space on devices.
Healthcare Classification of API
We can use the API in the healthcare industry in a variety of contexts, including Finance and Payment, Patient Registration, Health Tracking, Clinical, and IoT.
API for registration: This function is to manage the registration procedures related to EHR systems and the prerequisite for these APIs is authentication and authorization because it gives access to all upcoming consumer information-related activities. The user could schedule an appointment, send reminder emails, check for available consultation times, and reschedule appointments using this API which can be integrated with several operations like billing, messaging, and notifications.
Financial API: This API assists in managing the payment exchange between different healthcare providers and the appropriate parties where authentication and authorization are required, and they can be further divided into Claim API and Billing API.
Clinical API: It aids in controlling the exchange of clinical data through EHR systems that help doctors decide more effectively about a patient’s health and can be used to track a patient’s medical information and treatment plan.
Public Health API: Allows the public and other relevant organizations to exchange reportable clinical data and also it can be utilized to monitor public health in the event of dangers like the COVID-19 pandemic in the future.
IoT and activity tracker API: It is one of the newest elements of self-monitoring one’s health, and it hastens the development of patient-centered healthcare tools.
APIs for insurance and payment: Financial transactions can be processed using healthcare APIs with a high level of security.
Ancillary API: It aids in the management of data for various platforms used in telemedicine, nutrition, pharmacy, and other fields.
Security factors to take into account when creating healthcare APIs
Given that healthcare APIs deal with sensitive data, developers should take special care to ensure security because information misuse could have serious repercussions so to protect the health information of their citizens, many nations have their laws. The security factors listed below should be taken into account when creating healthcare APIs:
Device security: Rather than being created for smartphones, some healthcare apps are created for medical devices that may be rented out to patients by some healthcare organizations, which could result in data loss so after each session is over, the device should be locked.
Data encryption: There is a chance that hackers will steal the data while it is being transferred from the user to the server to protect patients from the dangers of personal medical data hacking, the user can send and receive data in an encrypted format most effectively using the Transport Layer Security protocol.
Protected access: Since healthcare stores personal information, access should be restricted and it should have a login and authorization screen that will allow only authorized users to access all information.
Regulatory compliance: A new medical application should adhere to the data security rules that various nations have in place and the application should be developed with HIPAA and GDPR compliance.
Conclusion
The foundation for a revolution in patient-centered care and innovation in healthcare is being laid by APIs and its critical to address current issues with standardization to enhance API functionality, which is recognized as the future of software architecture in the healthcare industry. Governments and concerned bodies must give data standards top priority to advance adoption in the future and promote API integration and, ultimately, patient care.
It strengthens medical applications to engage and connect with patients through mobile and social apps and enables healthcare companies to give patients critical information, simple to communicate with experts and patients to obtain the most recent patient data with the aid of a variety of techniques, enables developers to integrate their apps with specific devices and can provide aggregate data that can be used for producing reports and many more benefits can be derived from it so to have an advanced approach for healthcare communications, the challenges aforementioned in this article must be taken into account.
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