FHIR — Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources

What Is FHIR?

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, pronounced "fire") is a next-generation standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically. Developed by HL7 International, FHIR combines the best features of earlier HL7 standards with modern web technologies—RESTful APIs, JSON, XML, and OAuth 2.0—to make health data exchange faster, simpler, and more developer-friendly.

At its core, FHIR defines a set of Resources—Patient, Observation, MedicationRequest, DiagnosticReport, and over 150 others—that represent discrete clinical and administrative concepts. Each resource has a well-defined structure, can be queried via standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), and can be combined into Bundles for batch operations or document exchange.

Why It Matters in Healthcare

Traditional HL7 v2 messaging, while ubiquitous, was designed in an era of point-to-point interfaces and lacks native support for modern paradigms like mobile apps, patient portals, and cloud-based analytics. FHIR addresses these gaps:

• Lower barrier to entry: Developers familiar with web APIs can build FHIR integrations without deep healthcare IT expertise.
• Granular data access: Instead of exchanging entire documents, systems can request specific resources—e.g., a single lab result or medication list—reducing bandwidth and latency.
• Patient empowerment: FHIR-based patient access APIs (mandated by regulations such as the US 21st Century Cures Act) allow individuals to retrieve their own health data via mobile apps.
• Ecosystem growth: A thriving open-source community, SMART on FHIR app launchers, and vendor-neutral app stores are expanding what is possible on top of EHR platforms.
• Global adoption: National health programs in the US, UK, Australia, and Latin America have adopted FHIR as a core element of their interoperability strategies.

How Davix Relates to FHIR

The Davix HIS exposes a FHIR R4 API layer that enables modern, standards-based hospital integration. Key capabilities include:

• RESTful endpoints for core resources: Patient, Encounter, Observation, DiagnosticReport, MedicationRequest, and more.
• SMART on FHIR support, allowing third-party clinical apps to launch securely within the Davix environment.
• Subscription-based notifications for real-time event streaming to downstream consumers.
• Backward compatibility with HL7 v2.x, so organizations can adopt FHIR incrementally without disrupting existing interfaces.

Whether you are building a patient-facing mobile app, connecting to a national health information exchange, or integrating a best-of-breed LIS or PACS/RIS, Davix's FHIR capabilities provide the foundation for open, scalable, and future-proof interoperability.