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The healthcare sector is gradually evolving to embrace a novel approach. Paper-based records are being digitalized utilizing advanced software data structures. Medical entities are using healthcare applications and systems to collect, process, and digitally store healthcare information. Healthcare API’s are being utilized in a big way in the healthcare industry to integrate information from different devices and systems. Let’s look at some contributions of healthcare APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in the healthcare industry.

A healthcare API establishes a connection between various medical apps and systems for creating interoperability. These APIs are primarily proxy layers that are placed on healthcare apps, systems, and databases; they allow the stakeholders of the organization to access or repurpose these apps and databases. APIs enable greater interoperability between healthcare systems and drive the management of the entire healthcare digital environment. Some of the top contributions of Healthcare APIs are booking online appointments, integrating EHRs & wearables, monitoring patients remotely, and executing payments.

Let’s gain handy insights on healthcare APIs and explore the most noteworthy APIs that every healthcare service provider must be well versed in 2022!

A healthcare API refers to a digital structure that connects an app with the information stored on a server. Healthcare APIs allow an app to gather and access medical data from a digital database. APIs can also serve the purpose of storing healthcare records and sharing this information with other stakeholders whenever needed. When an app requires to access medical data, a GET request is sent to the connected API. The information is thereafter transmitted to the application in XML or JSON format. Medical apps consume this data in a specific format, as they are programmed to accept the data in the desired way.

This is a modular healthcare API that provides symptom checker features for the main program. Healthcare app developers use this API to integrate features that allow users to check disease symptoms. The symptom checker functionality helps users to identify diseases they are possibly suffering from. It also provides patients with additional healthcare information related to diseases and directs them to the most relevant doctor as per the disease identified. This API comes with a testing environment and different pricing options.

This healthcare API brings about effectiveness, flexibility, and transparency in the processes of interacting with patients and sharing medical data. It offers outstanding doctor-patient communication in real-time at any hour. Practitioners using this CONTUS MirrorFly API can share prescriptions and diagnostic images via digital channels for providing more personalized treatment to patients.

It offers loads of live streaming abilities, chat options, the group calling feature, and numerous end-to-end custom voice/video calling functionalities for customers. Utilizing the group calling feature, doctors can create online counseling sessions for a huge group of audiences. This API is flexible enough to integrate with any third-party device like Android, iOS, or web applications facilitating the creation of ideal telehealth platforms.

This API enables over 250 million US consumers to access patient records from most EHR systems across the country via a single point of entry. The API is pre-integrated with a major chunk of the labs and pharmacies in the US. The API complies with HIPAA, C-CDA, and FHIR standards. One unique benefit of this API is its capability to screen patients for detecting co-morbidities related to the Covid19 virus.

This telemedicine API can effortlessly integrate into a third-party application for providing services like online appointment scheduling, management of healthcare devices, and insurance reimbursement. And, the best part is that these services can be executed via instant messaging. Also, reimbursement codes can be added to the videos, thereby simplifying the complexity of the billing process in telemedicine apps.

With this API, healthcare app developers can integrate as well as create EHR (Electronic Health Record) software based on Allscripts. Such software enables seamless data exchange between EHR software systems and third-party apps. This allows a medical provider to share medical information with another provider or stakeholder accurately and speedily.

At present, this API functions with 14 USCDI classes and allows developers to test integrations, using the compatible sandbox environment. However, this API can only be used by developers who are registered with Allscripts. Healthcare providers that wish to use Allscripts products need to register for ADP (Allscripts Developer Program).

This is a real-time healthcare API that simplifies processes like healthcare payment and insurance billing for the consumers as well as providers unanimously. Eligible API provides an in-depth report on 1000+ insurance firms and also streamlines insurance verifications and claims processing tasks. Here, the standard eligibility transaction, X12 EDI 270 is used, it’s then formatted in JSON for initiating an HTTP request. This way, the EDI transaction set becomes all the more accessible to developers and the apps used by consumers. The X12 standards are well managed behind the scenes to provide users access to features like medical subscriptions, coinsurances, dependent plan memberships, etc. in a format that is human-readable.

This AWS-empowered healthcare API is a real-time digital healthcare data network that allows medical providers to deliver quality services to their patients. It assists in establishing a connection between patient portals, hospitals, EMRs, clinics, pharmacies, imaging laboratories, and insurance companies across the US. Using this API, millions of users can sync their healthcare data like medical history, lab test results, e-prescriptions, wearable devices, etc. into one single secure platform. Authorized users such as practitioners, healthcare professionals, etc. can access these records for treatment-related tasks. Every piece of healthcare information whether it is in transit or at rest is encrypted. Moreover, the data can be shared by customers irrespective of the data source and the data collection process. Furthermore, users can fully control access to their health data and decide which medical entities will be able to view their data.

The API gathers medical data from multiple sources and then, converts it into a format that is compatible with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). This process is executed using AI algorithms and medical API vendors. You can feed diverse types of medical data of a single patient into this API. It supports numerous data elements such as demographics, genetic characteristics, health conditions, allergies, medication, immunization records, medical insurance claims, meal plans, test outcomes, sleep patterns, social history, health vitals, activities, and medical provider information. Human API also offers free medical APIs for conducting testing activities.

This API offers an enterprise-grade healthcare app development environment that is well-managed and scalable as it enjoys the support of popular medical data standards like DICOM, HL7, HL7V2, and FHIR. It’s ideal for securely developing clinical apps and analytics solutions on Google Cloud. For example, healthcare data is imported from different sources including wearable devices and EHRs, and transformed into the FHIR format. And, data files are stored, managed, and analyzed by converting the data into the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) format.

Google Cloud Healthcare API simplifies the data exchange process happening between Cloud-based medical apps & solutions. It offers a RESTful interface for delivering medical data and intelligent insights. It also provides a host of analytical tools like vCloud, BigQuery, DataLab, AutoML, Datalow, Vertex AI, Cloud ML Engine, and Tableau. These tools confer machine learning abilities to the API and allow far-sighted visualization of medical data. For instance, Vertex AI provides ML capabilities, Dataflow offers pre-built connectors for processing streaming data, and BigQuery promotes scalable analytics. Using the Google Cloud Healthcare API, one can integrate devices, locations, datasets, policies, etc. in real-time.

This API not only ensures the security of your medical data but also fulfills the specific requirements of the healthcare sector like adherence to regulatory compliances. Google Cloud Healthcare API is backed by the privacy and security standards of Google, is HITRUST CSF certified, and supports HIPAA compliance.

This is a HIPAA compliant healthcare API that extracts data from different sources like trial reports, EHRs, practitioners’ notes, lab test results, etc. ML algorithms and NLP (natural language processing) technology are employed to automatically draw terms describing patients’ medical condition, parts of the body, treatment methodologies, medication plans, etc. These drawings are linked to unique codes obtained from RxNorm and ICD-10-CM datasets. This API identifies phrases related to PHI like names, IDs, age, contact numbers, and addresses of patients.

Two distinct sets of APIs are used for connecting healthcare entities with standardized names – Ontology Linking APIs and Text Analysis APIs. Healthcare documents must be added to the Amazon S3 storage for availing of the services of this API. This service is a paid one and users are charged as per the amount of usage.

Microsoft Azure API ensures the privacy of patients’ medical data. Healthcare systems use this API to consolidate their legacy documents stored in different repositories into Cloud storage. The API takes the help of medical API vendors to store PHI securely, adhering to FHIR standards. This API comes with a unique IoT connecter that ingests biometric data from different healthcare devices, EHR systems, and other data sources like research databases. The IoT connecter also processes biometric signals, converts the biometric data into FHIR, analyzes the data, and creates IoMT systems.

Healthcare organizations using Azure cloud services can create rich datasets and reap the benefits of implementing software tools related to business intelligence. The API comes with a power BI FHIR connecter that links the BI platform and the FHIR API for visualizing data and intelligent analytics. This healthcare API adheres to most standard compliances including HIPAA.

The top use cases of Microsoft Azure API include scalable EHR systems, dashboards for patient reporting, remote monitoring systems for patients, clinical decision-making processes, and healthcare analytics.

Healthcare providers, particularly start-ups, are still reluctant to employ APIs owing to some limitations existing in this arena. Several APIs provide a uni-directional data flow resulting in read-only access for patients. The complexity of API implementation and vulnerability to cybersecurity threats are other bottlenecks that keep medical organizations from adopting APIs.

The aforesaid challenges can be resolved if you partner with an experienced healthcare application development company to build user-friendly and customized healthcare solutions for your company. A proficient app development service will know the correct use of APIs based on your specific project requirements and guide you through the right path.

The concept of healthcare digitalization is not new! The healthcare industry had started replacing traditional methodologies with advanced software and emerging digital trends for a long time. Lately, the adoption of the “mobile health” approach has accelerated this ongoing transformation phase and has paved way for myriad novel opportunities in healthcare. The term mHealth or mobile healthcare has gained traction over the past couple of years and is expected to disrupt the entire healthcare system in the near future. mHealth apps have proved their prowess during the Covid19 pandemic by offering exceptional remote healthcare services.

The adoption rate of mHealth applications is rising in leaps and bounds. Take a look at these interesting stats on the mHealth app industry. According to the renowned market research portal Fact.MR, “mHealth app sales generated revenue of 36.7 Billion USD in the year 2021. During the period of 2022-2032, the sales of medical apps are expected to rise at a CAGR of 14.3%. The report also stated that the healthcare apps segment is going to turn into the highest revenue generation category in the coming years.”

Let’s explore the revolutionary power of mobile healthcare and its potential to define the future of the healthcare sector.

Mobile health or mHealth technology is the practice of delivering patient care and public health services using mobile communication devices and wireless technology. Generally, devices like smartphones, wearables, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), tablets, patient monitors, communications satellites, etc. are utilized to facilitate healthcare, medical information collection & storage, and medical research.

mHealth technology has emerged as a sub-category of eHealth, the yesteryear trend in healthcare, and has been successful in entirely digitalizing medical operations. mHealth apps collect the clinical health data of patients as well as community medical data in real-time. This data is then shared across authorized users – patients, doctors, and research scholars.

Mobile health applications help in carrying out activities like monitoring patients’ vital signs in real-time, remote diagnoses & treatment, telemedicine services, collecting remote data, tracking epidemic outbreaks, creating custom meal plans/ workout regimes, training/collaboration of medical workers, etc.

The adoption rate of smartphones and the internet is skyrocketing and so, there’s been a rapid surge in the usage of mobile apps. Even consumers living in remote locations enjoy access to these facilities. As such, today, consumers expect a smartphone app for every product and service they need. mHealth apps have made it possible to access healthcare services with a few finger clicks on their smartphone regardless of the location.

Patients with chronic diseases require regular health check-ups and their health vitals need to be monitored frequently. mHealth apps ease out this task as patients’ vitals can be remotely monitored using wearables like smartwatches, smart bands, smart glasses, etc.

The utilization of emerging technologies like IoT, artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, chatbots, and big data in healthcare have enabled mobile healthcare app developers to tailor apps with unimaginable capabilities. For instance, AI gathers meaningful insights from humongous data and facilitates medical analysis and clinical decision-making. ML algorithms yield precise and accurate outcomes when interacting with training data. This helps doctors gain handy insights into patient treatment methodologies. AI/ML technologies also prove highly beneficial in detecting cancer symptoms well in advance, assisting radiology functions, and even helping patients fight depression.

A new technology called DTx (Digital therapeutics) is being introduced into the healthcare industry landscape. DTx is clinically examined software that uses evidence-based technologies for enhancing patient outcomes. This technology delivers healthcare interventions to patients directly. So, if digital therapy tools are integrated into a mobile app, it will contribute immensely to treating patients, managing chronic medical conditions, and preventing the occurrence of diseases. DTx is expected to solve the problem of self-medication whenever individuals are unable to pay a visit to the doctor. This technology is expected to become the buzzword in healthcare in the near future.

Down the line, in the next few years, medical app development is expected to gift us with game-changing solutions for biopharmaceutical development, rare disease treatment/management, and cloud-powered solutions for digital drug discovery.

Healthcare mobile apps have empowered practitioners to provide better and more efficient care. Today, mobile apps have become an inseparable part of medical providers. These apps help practitioners to prescribe medication, view imaging & lab reports and also track patients’ recovery in real-time.

mHealth apps enable doctors to offer virtual diagnoses and treatment from any location, at any time. Moreover, healthcare diagnoses are much faster with minimal chances of errors. Furthermore, doctors and medical professionals receive timely notifications on their personal devices in case of emergencies along with all relevant information and hence it becomes possible to deliver prompt care during such situations.

Using mobile apps, users can find and book an appointment with the desired practitioner with just a few clicks on their mobile devices, arrange for doctor consultations via video conferencing, and make payments using an integrated payment gateway.

The most popular feature of mHealth apps is digital doctor visits. Patients can reap the benefits of this function for receiving doctor consultations and also clarify queries related to generic healthcare and medication. Modern mHealth apps offer functionality that instantly translates queries into the language preferred by the patient, thereby resolving the possibility of language barriers.

Virtual healthcare interaction proves immensely advantageous to busy individuals, the elderly, and people residing in remote areas without any hospitals nearby as they can receive healthcare services with a few taps on their smartphones.

mHealth apps simplify the hassle-prone task of searching for clinical references as users can view the required information in the app itself. Such an app will allow users to digitally access the major reference documents concerning clinical references including ICD-9, ICD-10, and E&M Coding.

Mobile healthcare app development comes with numerous additional perks for patients which were unthinkable in yesteryears. Today, patients using mHealth apps can maintain a digital wellness diary; receive the latest information on vaccines and drugs; view healthcare-related reviews and news digests; get reminders for medication, follow-ups, etc. Patients enjoy easier methods of appointment booking, maintain a diet & calorie control regime, and even can create a personal account linking it to their EMR (Electronic Medical Record).

Owners of hospitals and private clinics can get a custom app developed that can be integrated with a centralized database. Such an app will allow each doctor to view the medical data and lab test results of patients and also make a new addition to the system whenever needed. A custom health app will improve collaboration between healthcare facility staff, automate workflows, minimize the need for manual documentation, and provide precise information. This way, mobile healthcare app development saves time and efforts of medical professionals, improves efficiency, and reduces the chances of costly mistakes.

Healthcare mobile app development has offered innovative apps that improve patient-doctor communication. Also, patients’ trust in the healthcare provider increases as patients can actively participate in their treatment, communicate with health professionals and medics via text messages, receive notifications on follow-ups and ePrescription refills, access digital treatment records, and view test outcomes without having to visit the medical facility.

Thus, mHealth apps allow providers to provide elevated patient experiences, establish a brand name, attract a regular patient inflow, and strengthen their customer base, without having to invest a fortune in infrastructure or hiring medical staff. This results in improved ROI and exponential growth.

Mobile healthcare apps are becoming an inseparable component of the healthcare industry as more healthcare and pharmacy service providers are moving toward a technology-infused approach to delivering patient-centric services. The future of mHealth apps looks promising as advancements in AR, AI, and Cloud are expected soon. App development in healthcare in USA is undoubtedly a lucrative investment option for entrepreneurs.

However, developing flawless medical apps is no cakewalk and requires loads of experience and expertise. Therefore, it’ll be a good idea to seek professional help from an experienced healthcare mobile app development firm to craft an amazing mHealth app that will successfully address users’ pain points.