By OPEN MINDS Circle
The number of digital applications that could integrate with an electronic health record (EHR) increased by 22% during 2020, from 600 in 2019 to 734 in 2020. Some of the apps were intended for use by provider organizations or health care professionals; others were consumer facing. About 42% of the apps in 2020 were intended for administration tasks (scheduling, check-in, and billing), and 38% were intended for clinical use (for automated tasks, population health, telehealth, and clinical decision support). About 31% of apps focused on care management, 20% on consumer engagement, and 5% on research.
The app integration estimates are based on a review of the public app galleries hosted by Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner Corporation, Epic Systems Corporation, and SMART. The review was conducted by researchers with the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The goal was to set a baseline for the app market before the ONC Cures Act final rule went into effect in April 2021. The rule established conditions to promote transparent and competitive business practices that facilitate the adoption and use of application programming interfaces by third-party app developers. In this review, ONC also sought to understand growth of the app market, the variety of app functions, how the apps connect to EHRs, and whether the apps support the Health Level Seven® (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR) standard. The FHIR data exchange standard guides how application programming interfaces (APIs) exchange consumer health data. By the end of 2022, certified health information technology developers will be required to support FHIR-based, standardized APIs for consumer and population-level services. They will need to comply with new API “Conditions and Maintenance of Certification” requirements.
In both 2019 and 2020, about 20% of apps supported FHIR, at 112 in 2019 and 161 in 2020. Support for FHIR varied by intended functionality and the host gallery. Variation existed among some of the largest EHR developers. The administrative apps were least likely to support FHIR. The researchers noted that FHIR apps are often limited to exchanging specific data elements to meet the needs of narrow use cases. They anticipate that as the number of use cases rises, the number of apps will also increase.
These findings were reported in “The Ecosystem Of Apps And Software Integrated With Certified Health Information Technology” by Wesley Barker and Christian Johnson. The researchers developed a program that gathered data from the public app galleries hosted by Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner Corporation, Epic Systems Corporation, and SMART. The goal was to determine how many apps integrated with EHRs and if the apps support the HL7 FHIR standard.
For more information, contact: Wesley Barker, Researcher, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 330 C Street Southwest, Floor 7, Washington, District of Columbia 20024; 202-690-6343; Email: wesley.barker@hhs.gov; Website: https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/electronic-health-and-medical-records/research-results-published-more-apps-are-integrating-with-ehrs