Apple has opened up its Health Records API to third-party developers in the US, allowing them to develop new apps to add to the developing app library being built by Apple that can directly access medical records held by approved healthcare providers such as hospitals and GPs.
The Health Records app, which is available only to US consumers at the moment, uses the FHIR standard to interface with EMR vendors such as Cerner, Epic and athenahealth. It was launched in beta form in January with a full release in iOS 11.3 in March, with 39 different health groups participating.
The FHIR APIs were developed as part of Project Argonaut, an Australian version of which has been established this year to localise the technology. Apple is also using OAuth 2.0 to allow users to authenticate once and create an enduring connection to the EMR APIs.
