FHIR Could Ease Data Gathering for Clinical Research
The initiative, called the Multistate EHR-based Network for Disease Surveillance, or MENDS, is testing an approach that would use a bulk data application programming interface, or API, to make it easier to collect de-identified patient information from a wide range of EHR systems to better support nationwide disease surveillance.
In the ongoing FHIR testing, data requests are sent in batch mode via FHIR APIs, setting off a process that gathers information in records on patient encounters, conditions, observations, claims, medication orders and immunization. The files that eventually flow back into the data mart contain patient medical histories that go back several years and approach 1 terabyte in size.
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