API-First Design As A Strategy For Healthcare System Interoperability

Abstract

Healthcare’s growing dependency on the secure and timely sharing of medical information across disparate systems has exposed the inherent limitations of existing healthcare information exchange (HIE) solutions. The challenge of achieving healthcare interoperability at scale has seen significant investments of time, money, and expertise from stakeholders throughout the health information ecosystem. Nonetheless, evidence shows that demand for a robust, reliable, and efficient infrastructure for health information exchange remains unabated. APIs are the next logical step in providing this connectivity. Yet APIs must be treated as strategic artifacts in their own right. API-First Design, where APIs are treated as design artifacts and all decisions made as part of design are made with APIs in mind, provides the foundations for realizing the full potential of APIs in HIE.

API-First Design provides a road map for healthcare organizations looking to enable interoperability in an evidence-based manner. The design and development of the APIs that form the cornerstone of interoperability within an organization strongly influence the organization’s ability to realize the benefits of interoperability, and these APIs represent significant investments that warrant dedicated governance and oversight throughout the API lifecycle. Organizations that make the effort to establish a clear understanding of the API requirements shared by their stakeholders and to apply best practices in the design, build, and management of their APIs stand a much better chance of reaping the benefits of interoperability than those that fail to do so.