FHIR
Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources
FHIR is HL7's modern, web-native standard for exchanging healthcare data as modular JSON/XML resources over RESTful APIs.
FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is the HL7 standard designed for the modern web. Instead of delimited messages, data is modeled as discrete resources — Patient, Observation, Condition, MedicationRequest, Encounter, Claim, and dozens more — exchanged as JSON or XML over standard RESTful HTTP APIs.
FHIR has moved through several maturity releases: DSTU2, STU3, R4/R4B, and R5. US regulation standardizes on FHIR R4 (specifically R4.0.1) as the baseline for certified APIs. Resources can be constrained by profiles and implementation guides — such as US Core — so that a given use case has predictable, conformant structure.
Because FHIR is developer-friendly and API-first, it underpins patient-access apps, payer data exchange, prior authorization, and bulk analytics. The 21st Century Cures Act makes a standardized FHIR API non-optional for every certified EHR in the United States.
How this relates to Health1st
FHIR is the target (and often the source) of every Health1st translation. The platform produces R4.0.1 output validated against US Core and the relevant Da Vinci or CARIN implementation guides, so the FHIR you generate is conformant enough to pass procurement and audit review.
Related terms
HL7 v2 is the pipe-and-hat messaging standard that still carries most real-time clinical data between hospital systems — admissions, orders, results, and more.
US Core is the HL7 implementation guide that constrains FHIR resources into the specific profiles US regulation requires, binding them to USCDI data elements.
SMART on FHIR is the OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect authorization framework that lets third-party apps securely launch against a FHIR API with scoped access.
Bulk FHIR is the FHIR Bulk Data ("$export") specification for efficiently moving large populations of FHIR resources as NDJSON, used for analytics and payer-to-payer exchange.
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