Future-proof your healthcare strategy with a FHIR data store
Sep 28, 2023
It’s almost impossible to plan for the future – but don’t you want to give your future self a leg up? While you might not be ready to get started with complex AI and ML use cases now, many organizations are using FHIR stores to address pressing compliance and quality use cases. And there’s a good chance your organization will seek out some flavor of these more advanced solutions sooner rather than later – especially as AI tools continue to become more mainstream. FHIR data stores make it easy for health systems, payers, and digital health organizations to scale and adopt new use cases over time, building on a foundation of actionable clinical data stored in modern, secure FHIR in the cloud.
In a recap of our conversation with Nick McKenzie, Redox Group Product Manager, and Vivian Neilley, Product Manager at Google Cloud Healthcare, you’ll learn why FHIR stores are so powerful – both to enable healthcare data use cases, as well as build a strategic competitive advantage for your organization. As a newer standard, FHIR does present some challenges – we’ll prep you on what roadblocks you might face along the way, as well as how to overcome them.
To kick off the conversation – what is a FHIR store? You might have heard of a managed FHIR server, which is a structured cloud-deployed database that you can manage and persist healthcare data in a FHIR format. This is usually overlaid with a layer of API connectivity that allows for standard database interactions, as well as advanced AI and ML applications. Redox and Google refer to this managed server as a FHIR store, or a centralized clinical data repository where organizations can tackle a variety of healthcare use cases.
To back up just a bit, you might also be wondering – why so much emphasis on FHIR? The major cloud players, including Google Cloud, have selected the FHIR standard as the foundation of their clinical data repositories. But why? Vivian shares why FHIR is the preferred choice for enterprise organizations looking to scale, especially as they aim to build longitudinal patient records and pursue complex analytics use cases.
“There are probably a hundred different ways you can use a FHIR store - the possibilities are endless for organizations in healthcare.”
Nick McKenzie, Redox Group Product Manager
Nick dives into some of the most common applications that Redox and Google are seeing amongst our customers, starting with compliance. While it might not be the sexiest topic, FHIR stores allow organizations to more easily comply with regulatory measures like CMS’s Patient Access Rule, where data retrieval for patients is now backed by modern, secure FHIR.
One of the most exciting use cases enabled by a FHIR store is the creation of longitudinal patient records. Previously not possible with its clunky predecessors, FHIR can now merge multiple “moments in time” and connect disparate encounters for a singular holistic patient view. Nick shares his thoughts on semantic interoperability, with an emphasis on useful data flowing across the care spectrum, allowing providers to make timely, contextual decisions.
FHIR stores also have exciting implications for advanced AI, ML, and analytics use cases. As an expert in the analytics space, Vivian shares the evolution of more robust analytics capabilities that are easier and more streamlined to achieve thanks to FHIR.
So you’re ready to build a FHIR store – what challenges can you expect along the way? Nick highlights the main roadblocks you’ll likely encounter, while Vivian shares the biggest mistake she often sees developers make when getting started.
“If you want to move and work with healthcare data at scale, you need the most effective and efficient onramp and time to value as an organization, and that’s unequivocally Redox.”
Nick McKenzie, Redox Group Product Manager
Redox is here to help you overcome the hurdles of building a FHIR store. We create the onramp so our customers can access Google’s exciting AI, ML, and analytics tools – and we do it up to 80% faster than other solutions.
“Redox just makes it look easy. Redox is my preferred partner to work with when integrating and mapping data. Our joint products give your organization time and space to be able to build the next generation of tools that are helping patients, and not spend time in the nitty gritty nuances of data mapping.”
Vivian Neilley, Google Cloud Healthcare Product Manager
Click here to view the full FHIR store conversation with Nick and Vivian, including our audience Q&A. Interested in getting started with building your own FHIR store? Get in touch to capitalize on the cloud’s full potential with Redox.