Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a rapidly growing standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically. In this blog post, we will discuss how to make your Ruby on Rails app FHIR compliant.
- Install a FHIR Client/Server Library
- The first step in making your Ruby on Rails app FHIR compliant is to install a FHIR client/server library. There are several Ruby libraries available for FHIR, such as fhir_client, fhir_models, and fhir_server. These libraries provide an easy way to interact with FHIR resources and implement FHIR servers.
- Define FHIR Resources
- After installing the FHIR client/server library, the next step is to define FHIR resources in your Ruby on Rails app. FHIR resources are the building blocks of healthcare data exchange. They define a standard way of representing healthcare information, such as patient data, medication orders, lab results, and more.
You can define FHIR resources in your app using the FHIR models library. This library provides a set of Ruby classes that represent FHIR resources. You can define custom FHIR resources in your app by subclassing the FHIR models.
- Implement FHIR Endpoints
- To implement FHIR servers in your Ruby on Rails app, you need to define FHIR endpoints. FHIR endpoints are URLs that allow clients to interact with FHIR resources. You can define FHIR endpoints in your app using the Rails routing mechanism.
For example, to define an endpoint for retrieving patient data, you can add the following line to your Rails routes file:
This will define an endpoint that responds to GET requests at the URL ‘/Patient/:id’, where :id is the ID of the patient resource.
- Implement FHIR Operations
- FHIR resources support a set of standard operations, such as create, read, update, and delete. To implement these operations in your Ruby on Rails app, you can use the FHIR server library.
For example, to implement the create operation for patient resources, you can add the following line to your Rails controller:
def create patient = FHIR::Patient.new(params[:patient]) patient.create!
redirect_to patient_path(patient.id) end
This will create a new patient resource using the data from the POST request and redirect the user to the newly created patient’s endpoint.
- Test Your FHIR Implementation
- After implementing FHIR resources, endpoints, and operations in your Ruby on Rails app, it’s important to test your implementation for FHIR compliance. There are several FHIR testing tools available that can help you ensure compliance with the FHIR standard.
For example, you can use the HAPI FHIR Tester or the Touchstone tool to test your FHIR implementation for compliance with the FHIR standard.
In conclusion, making your Ruby on Rails app FHIR compliant involves installing a FHIR client/server library, defining FHIR resources, implementing FHIR endpoints and operations, and testing your implementation for FHIR compliance. By following these steps, you can ensure that your app is compliant with the latest healthcare industry standards.
