API Management in Digital Health: Exploring IBM API Connect and IBM API Hub in Enabling Healthcare Innovation

Traditionally, healthcare analytics are confined within research and specialized institutions or can only be accessible through proprietary Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In recent years, there have been growing needs for collecting patient data and using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop machine-learning models which can be used to derive data-driven insights and enhance patient care. In order to expand the access and use for these healthcare APIs, several challenges need to be addressed in digital health environments including data privacy, regulatory compliance and handling diverse data formats. Among commercially available API management solutions, IBM API Connect and IBM API Hub are promising to provide comprehensive capabilities to manage, secure, socialize and monetize APIs. This paper explores the need for effective API management in healthcare that can facilitate the development and implementation of analytics for widespread use. Specifically, in this work we present the integration of fifteen digital health microservice APIs with IBM API Connect and their deployment in IBM API Hub, thus enhancing their security and accessibility. Using Pain States microservice as an example, we demonstrate its API access in IBM API Hub through alternate programming environments like the Jupyter Notebook. This initiative aims to streamline access to the APIs for researchers, developers and clients.