Using XDS and FHIR to Support Mobile Access to EHR Information Through Personal Health Apps

The widespread usage of electronic health record (EHR) systems and the prevalence of personal health apps has led to the digitization of huge quantities of health and medical data. However, the lack of plug and play interoperability between them is a major bottleneck, significantly restricting their exploitation potential. This paper presents a novel infrastructure developed for enabling the seamless integration between such systems, focusing on the use of state-of-the-art, widely accepted, interfaces. The infrastructure effectively supports end-user needs for integrated care, bringing linked EHR information from multiple providers at the point of care by means of personal health apps. Integration is provided through cross-enterprise document sharing (XDS) and fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR) services. The described infrastructure facilitates interoperability by enabling citizens to use a personal health app of their choosing for accessing own medical record information stored at multiple sites, by combining the benefits and potential of both XDS and FHIR.