UNIFYING HEALTH TECH MARKETPLACE: MEDCODE.AI INSIGHTS FOR OPTIMAL CONNECTIVITY
#HEALTHCARE #AI
In this article, we delve into the essential components, practices, and procedures required for a robust health tech marketplace. Explore with us:
1. What constitutes a thriving health tech marketplace for health technology vendors, healthcare providers, and payers.
2. The environment and tools facilitating innovation, keeping pace with health consumer digital expectations, and seamlessly connecting vital patient health data with the broader health ecosystem.
3. Measures to ensure healthcare stakeholders remain compliant with regulations concerning sensitive personal health data.
STARTING WITH THE BASICS: API
The Application Programming Interface (API) is more than a mere entity within the software development microcosm; it's a vital gateway facilitating communication and data exchange between two applications. Whether checking the weather on your mobile phone or sending an instant message on Facebook, chances are you've interacted with applications supported by API.
In healthcare, APIs have emerged as technological rock stars, steadily gaining traction over the last decade. The application of APIs in the healthcare sector brings about:
- Greater operational efficiency
- Improved health outcomes
- Reduced healthcare costs
The pivotal reason behind the elevated status of APIs is data interoperability. APIs play a crucial role in making health data more accessible and shareable among all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. The 21st Century Cures Act, a federal regulation emphasizing the secure exchange of patient health data among health professionals with patient consent, propels API to a new level, positioning it as a disruptor in the healthcare industry.
ENTERING THE REALM OF HEALTH TECH MARKETPLACES
Marketplaces for electronic health record system vendors like Epic and Allscripts, along with public and private hospitals, have been around for over a decade. These marketplaces offer features such as API documentation and management, application hosting, third-party development and innovation, and application marketing. The need to connect software and services for enhanced benefits to healthcare consumers is evident.
Security poses a challenge for the healthcare industry, hindering the development of applications that facilitate an interconnected network of data exchange beyond organizational boundaries. Ensuring the security of sensitive health information, shared with patient consent across the health ecosystem, is a crucial step towards an effective healthcare system.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR HEALTH TECH MARKETPLACES
When delving into health tech marketplaces, it's essential to consider API standardization efforts supporting secure data exchange. Standards like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and HL7 (Health Level 7) are international benchmarks for transferring data between healthcare providers. Adhering to these standards is a fundamental requirement for any marketplace development.
Beyond the minimum viable product, health tech marketplaces must encompass:
- Applications provisioning
- API documentation management
- Transaction logs
- Analytics and reporting
- Applications gallery
- Partners gallery
- API management
- Users and tenant management
- Cloud architecture
- Sandbox provisioning for building and testing
A comprehensive health tech marketplace should provide extended functionality through software development kits (SDKs), sandbox environments for testing, and application upload and management via a developer’s portal.
ADVANCING BEYOND THE BASICS
A thriving health tech marketplace should enhance the visibility of partner offerings and third-party solutions, enabling the downloading, installation, or request of third-party applications and services in one centralized location.
Additionally, an API marketplace needs to accelerate and simplify app and extension development, empowering developers to turn their ideas into real products contributing to the entire ecosystem. Back-end support for API consumers and the necessary fee structures for products are equally important considerations.
To gain deeper insights into the proper setup of healthcare innovation marketplaces and understand how industry peers approach them, watch the on-demand webinar, "Accelerating Interoperability: Health Tech Marketplaces of the Future."
Are you ready to explore the future of health tech connectivity? Join us on this journey towards an interconnected and innovative healthcare ecosystem.