API Adoption Can Accelerate Interoperability, Patient Data Exchange

Benefits of API Adoption

Moscovitch gave three key healthcare benefits for API adoption, which include patient access to data, the incorporation of clinical decision support (CDS) tools for prescribing antibiotics, and patient data exchange between providers.

API adoption can give patients access to data. Patients can utilize APIs to track and manage their healthcare outside of the doctor’s office on their smartphone or computer.

Using APIs, providers can integrate applications into the EHR to give users a broader range of CDS tools that would allow the user to pick one that works best.

APIs can allow clinicians to pick and choose the needed or important patient information to exchange, rather than sending full clinical history

Current API adoption challenges

Although APIs can be beneficial, health IT professionals still face integration and usability challenges.

First, health IT developers could increase API adoption if they code them differently for each EHR system. But this approach would be limited because it would only allow adoption on one EHR system or application, Moscovitch said.

“But standards—such as the industry-developed Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which is a standard for exchanging health care information electronically—ensure easier use of APIs,” explained Moscovitch. “FHIR can offer access to individual pieces of information—such as a list of medications—instead of a broader document containing more data, some of which might be unnecessary or patients may not wish to share.”

Additionally, not all APIs can read EHR data and most do not have write access functions to input information back into the EHR. Moscovitch said once APIs receive write access functions, clinicians and patients could utilize CDS tools to edit portions of the EHR, such as changing an address, correcting errors, or updating symptoms.

“Federal regulations finalized in 2020 require the use of FHIR and expand the dataset that must be available for exchange via APIs, but the rules did not address write access,” Moscovitch explained.

“Those regulations are scheduled to take effect in 2022. Although these regulations are critical, they do not mitigate the need for significant additional policy and technology developments in order to successfully integrate and prioritize APIs within health care. Policymakers can take additional measures to promote the use of APIs and incentivize new capabilities through both legislation and additional regulation,” Moscovitch continued.

Future of API adoption

Pew partnered with RTI International, a research institute, to analyze and evaluate the current and future API uses by interviewing health IT professionals.

Respondents said they most commonly utilized APIs for patient access and CDS. Some respondents even said they have not utilized APIs for other use cases, such as patient data exchange.

Next, respondents said health IT vendors vary on the permitted data elements for patient data exchange. This variance impacts the type and amount of patient information that clinicians can exchange.  

Pew learned many of the terms and conditions from providers, EHR vendors, and third-party app developers were incomplete and did not have critical details, such as costs. Because of this, those three groups of individuals can dictate costs and these costs vary.

Last, the respondents said API use could improve by enabling EHR data entry, integrating applications into clinician workflow, and implementing standardized data elements.

In order to accelerate API adoption and enhance both security and usability, Moscovitch recommended lawmakers focus on developing policies that:

• Advance privacy and security
• Develop the ability to enter data into EHRs
• Grow API use for data exchange among providers
• Expand more data elements for exchange
• Monitor costs
• Protect health inequities with CDS tools

“Increased use of APIs—particularly those based on common adopted and consistently deployed standards—has the potential to make health care more efficient, lead to better care coordination, and give providers and patients additional tools to access information and ensure high-quality, efficient, safe, and value-based care,” Moscovitch concluded.

“Yet obstacles remain, such as some hospital hesitation to grant patient access to data, lack of bidirectional data exchange, confusion around the process of implementing APIs, and potentially prohibitive fee structures.”