HL7 FHIR
FHIR defines reusable healthcare resources and exchange patterns, but real interoperability depends on profiles, terminology, identity, authorization, and workflow behavior.
FHIR defines resource types for clinical and administrative concepts and multiple ways to exchange them. In the RESTful framework, systems interact with resources through standardized HTTP operations, search, history, and transaction patterns. The core API does not by itself solve authentication, authorization, patient matching, terminology, consent, or audit collection. Those controls belong in the implementation architecture and the applicable implementation guides.
A syntactically valid resource may still be unusable to the receiving workflow. Teams need to agree on FHIR release, profiles, required elements, extensions, code systems, value sets, reference behavior, identifiers, and error semantics. A CapabilityStatement describes what a server supports, but contract and conformance tests should verify the specific reads, searches, writes, subscriptions, and operations the integration depends on. Identity reconciliation and terminology mapping need explicit exception queues because silent mismatches can create clinical risk.
Implementation begins with the workflow rather than the resource list. An Epic, Oracle Health, payer, laboratory, or research integration may combine FHIR with HL7 v2, documents, vendor APIs, or batch exchange. Teams should inventory interfaces, map provenance, enforce user and application authorization, test minimum-necessary data access, preserve acknowledgements, design downtime queues, and reconcile replay after recovery. Parallel clinical validation is necessary before cutover when the interface can affect care or operational continuity.
We trace the clinical or administrative workflow, confirm the source system capabilities, select the applicable FHIR release and profiles, and map identity, terminology, authorization, provenance, and failure behavior. Contract tests cover the exact operations used; clinical users validate meaning and workflow; operational tests cover duplicates, out-of-order messages, dependency loss, replay, and reconciliation before broader release.
Compliance-Native Architecture Guide
Design principles and a structured checklist for building software that is compliant by default — not compliant by retrofit. Covers data architecture, access controls, audit trails, and vendor due diligence.