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Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR, pronounced "fire") is a draft standard describing data formats and elements (known as "resources") and an application programming interface (API) for exchanging electronic health records

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Discussion Eyal Levin · Feb 6, 2024
Hi everyone,
I was discussing the interoperability side of FHIR as part of a discussion about the best resource/s that should be used in order to represent Antibiotic resilience, and although we've reached an agreement, that got me thinking of two thing, and I'd love to know your thoughts on those matters.
1. How can you make sure that data from another organization is represented the same way it does on your side, I mean how do you get minimal transformation between organizations and minimal translations, for example I use Task in order to represent morbidity, while another organization
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Article Ashok Kumar T · Jun 30, 2025 23m read

Overview

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a standardized framework developed by HL7 International to facilitate the exchange of healthcare data in a flexible, developer-friendly, and modern way. It leverages contemporary web technologies to ensure seamless integration and communication across healthcare systems.

Key FHIR Technologies

  • RESTful APIs for resource interaction
  • JSON and XML for data representation
  • OAuth2 for secure authorization and authentication
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Article Fan Ji · Nov 20, 2025 3m read

In today’s healthcare data landscape, FHIR has become the standard for structured clinical data exchange. However, while FHIR excels at interoperability, its JSON format makes analytics challenging—including FHIR QuestionnaireResponse.

This project demonstrates how to transform FHIR QuestionnaireResponse data from nested JSON into relational SQL tables and vector embeddings. By integrating the InterSystems IRIS FHIR SQL Builder and Vector Search, we unlock the semantic meaning behind patient answers.

Three Steps to Build It

1. Design and Collect the Questionnaire

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Article sween · Nov 20, 2025 5m read

Vibe the Module, Not the Data


While working with the FHIR to OMOP Service, I've seen good FHIR synthetic data being created using commercial LLM's etc, custom tailored for ConditionOnset with the typical amazement on return, but witnessed some questionable trust first hand on a call.  This approach also falls short generating gigantic payloads so I can go back to my interests on the backend and ensure smooth data transition.

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Question Robert Dingwell · Nov 12, 2025

Hi,

I'm using the iris for health community edition and I cannot seem to get the FHIR server configuration UI to show up.  I was able to create a FHIR server programaticlly but none of the user interface features that the installation guide talks about are available.  Once I was created the server I was able to see a Bulk FHIR Coordinator in the management portal, ut that's it.  Are the UI features not available in the community edition or do they need to be enabled somehow? 

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Question Kevin Mayfield · Nov 6, 2025

I have a quite complex FHIR Implementation Guide (IG) which is based on several other FHIR IGs. It's likely the versions of IGs conflict with each other.
From what I understand, I would need to load in all the other FHIR IG's first? 
I don't actually need FHIR profiles to be in our FHIR Repository - I'm just after terminology and the examples for our test system.
Is it possible to load a FHIR IG just as data? (I think I mean here, ignore the FHIR profiles and dependencies between them)

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Article Ariel Glikman · Jan 13, 2025 3m read

You may have noticed that to configure a mirror for InterSystems IRIS for Health and HealthShare® Health Connect there is a special requirement. I wanted to go through it step by step in this article.

This assumes you have already configured the second failover member and confirmed a successful failover member status in the mirror monitor:

Step 1:Enable HS_Services user (on backup and primary

Step 2: Switch to Namespace HSSYS and go to Interoperability > Configure > Credentials. Enter the Password for your predefined HS_Services user (on backup and primary)

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Article Ashok Kumar T · Oct 20, 2025 11m read

What is XML?

XML(eXtensible Markup Language) is a flexible, text-based, andplatform-independentformat used to store and transport data in a well-structured way that is both human- and machine-readable. XML permits users to define custom tags to describe the meaning and organization of their data. For example: <book><title>The Hitchhiker's Guide</title></book>.

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Article Laura Blázquez García · Feb 23, 2025 4m read

When we create a FHIR repository in IRIS, we have an endpoint to access information, create new resources, etc. But there are some resources in FHIR that probably we wont have in our repository, for example, Binary resource (this resource returns a document, like PDF for example).

I have created an example that when a Binary resource is requested, FHIR endpoint returns a response, like it exists in the repository. 

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Article Kate Lau · Oct 13, 2025 13m read

Hi all,

Let's do some more work about the testing data generation and export the result by REST API.😁

Here, I would like to reuse the datagen.restservice class which built in the pervious article Writing a REST api service for exporting the generated patient data in .csv

This time, we are planning to generate a FHIR bundle include multiple resources for testing the FHIR repository.

Here is some reference for you, if you want to know mare about FHIR The Concept of FHIR: A Healthcare Data Standard Designed for the Future

OK... Let's start😆

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Question PaulSomebody · Oct 24, 2025

Hi,

  We have some concerns on how to implement FHIR, do we do facade?, how do we get resources?, what is a resource?, is a resource "Patient" or an instance of a patient?, How can we have a FHIR repository AND send the patient details to healthshare MPI?

  Has anyone correctly created a FHIR server that has custom methods?, handles "normal" methods and forwards onto Healthshare MPI , processing the response and creates a accurate FHIR response back to the calling system.

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Article sween · May 14, 2025 7m read

Real Time FHIR® to OMOP Transformation

This part of the OMOP Journey,  we reflect before attempting to challenge Scylla on how fortunate we are that InterSystems OMOP transform is built on the Bulk FHIR Export as the source payload.  This opens up hands off interoperability with the InterSystems OMOP transform across several FHIR® vendors, this time with the Google Cloud Healthcare API.

Google Cloud Healthcare API FHIR® Export

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InterSystems Official Daniel Palevski · Oct 22, 2025

The 2025.1.2 and 2024.1.5 maintenance releases of InterSystems IRIS® data platform, InterSystems IRIS® for HealthTM, and HealthShare® Health Connect are now Generally Available (GA). These releases include the fixes for a number of recently issued alerts and advisories, including the following: 

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Article Kate Lau · Oct 13, 2025 5m read

Hi all,

It's me again 😁. In the pervious article Writing a REST api service for exporting the generated FHIR bundle in JSON, we actually generated a resource DocumentReference, with the content data encoded in Base64

Question!! Is it possible to write a REST service for decoding it? Because I am very curious what is the message data talking about🤔🤔🤔

OK, Let's start!

1. Create a new utility class datagen.utli.decodefhirjson.cls for decoding the data inside the DocumentReference
 

Class datagen.utli.decodefhirjson Extends%RegisteredObject
{
}
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Article Pietro Di Leo · Oct 9, 2025 6m read

Introduction

In my previous article, I introduced the FHIR Data Explorer, a proof-of-concept application that connects InterSystems IRIS, Python, and Ollama to enable semantic search and visualization over healthcare data in FHIR format, a project currently participating in the InterSystems External Language Contest.

In this follow-up, we’ll see how I integrated Ollama for generating patient history summaries directly from structured FHIR data stored in IRIS, using lightweight local language models (LLMs) such as Llama 3.2:1B or Gemma 2:2B.

The goal was to build a completely local AI pipeline that can extract, format, and narrate patient histories while keeping data private and under full control.

All patient data used in this demo comes from FHIR bundles, which were parsed and loaded into IRIS via the IRIStool module. This approach makes it straightforward to query, transform, and vectorize healthcare data using familiar pandas operations in Python. If you’re curious about how I built this integration, check out my previous article Building a FHIR Vector Repository with InterSystems IRIS and Python through the IRIStool module.

Both IRIStool and FHIR Data Explorer are available on the InterSystems Open Exchange — and part of my contest submissions. If you find them useful, please consider voting for them!

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Article Pietro Di Leo · Oct 9, 2025 4m read

Introduction

In a previous article, I presented the IRIStool module, which seamlessly integrates the pandas Python library with the IRIS database. Now, I'm explaining how we can use IRIStool to leverage InterSystems IRIS as a foundation for intelligent, semantic search over healthcare data in FHIR format.

This article covers what I did to create the database for another of my projects, the FHIR Data Explorer. Both projects are candidates in the current InterSystems contest, so please vote for them if you find them useful.

You can find them at the Open Exchange:

In this article we'll cover:

  • Connecting to InterSystems IRIS database through Python
  • Creating a FHIR-ready database schema
  • Importing FHIR data with vector embeddings for semantic search
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Article Pietro Di Leo · Oct 6, 2025 4m read
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Announcement Derek Gervais · Oct 9, 2025

Hey Community,

The InterSystems team put on our monthly Developer Meetup with a triumphant return to CIC's Venture Café, the crowd including both new and familiar faces. Despite the shakeup in both location and topic, we had a full house of folks ready to listen, learn, and have discussions about health tech innovation!

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Article sween · Apr 23, 2025 6m read

Nearline FHIR® Ingestion to InterSystems OMOP from AWS HealthLake

This part of the OMOP Journey we reflect before attempting to challenge Scylla on how fortunate we are that InterSystems OMOP transform is built on the Bulk FHIR Export as the source payload.  This opens up hands off interoperability with the InterSystems OMOP transform across several FHIR® vendors, including Amazon Web Services HealthLake.

HealthLake Bulk FHIR Export
 

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Article Luis Angel Pérez Ramos · Sep 30, 2025 11m read

Welcome, dear members of the Community!

In this article, we will present an example of a project implementing a FHIR-based solution. This project will be based on the national project (Spanish national project), known as ÚNICAS.

What is ÚNICAS?

In his own words:

A project whose objective is to create an ecosystem of partnerships to improve healthcare for pediatric patients with complex rare diseases (RMDs). This project is being implemented through the network within the National Health System (NHS) to improve the diagnosis and care of patients with rare diseases.

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Announcement Kristina Lauer · Sep 29, 2025

Hi, Community!

🔥Does your organization work with HL7® FHIR® resources and need training, now or in the future?

Learning Services is exploring whether to create a new instructor-led course on FHIR support in InterSystems IRIS® for Health and HealthShare® Health Connect.

If you’re involved in approving or recommending training for your team, we’d love your input! Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey.

Your feedback will help us understand both current and future demand so we can build training that supports your needs.

Thanks in advance for sharing your perspective!

👉Take the survey.

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Article Ashok Kumar T · Sep 8, 2025 19m read

FHIR Server

A FHIR Server is a software application that implements the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard, enabling healthcare systems to store, access, exchange, and manage healthcare data in a standardized manner.

Intersystems IRIS can store and retrieve the following FHIR resources:

  • Resource Repository – IRIS Native FHIR server can effortlessly store the FHIR bundles/resources directly in the FHIR repository.
  • FHIR Facade - the FHIR facade layer is a software architecture pattern used to expose a FHIR-compliant API on top of an existing one (often non-FHIR). It also streamlines the healthcare data system, including an electronic health record (EHR), legacy database, or HL7 v2 message store, without requiring the migration of all data into a FHIR-native system.

What is FHIR?

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a standardized framework created by HL7 International to facilitate the exchange of healthcare data in a flexible, developer-friendly, and modern way. It leverages contemporary web technologies to ensure seamless integration and communication across various healthcare systems.

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Article Andre Ribera · Nov 15, 2024 2m read

I have a large tree outside my window. Here in Phoenix, Arizona, USA it's still warm and sunny so our plants are still covered in lush foliage despite so many other places in the full throws of Autumn. My desk is oriented such that I can look out at the tree throughout the day. Part of the reason I like having my desk facing the tree is because I need the break from staring at the computer screens but the other reason is because I need reminders from nature from time to time.
Today I'm reminded of two things:

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Article Ariel Glikman · Sep 7, 2025 1m read

Often times when working with FHIR data, for example with IRIS For Health, you'll find it useful to create a custom FHIR operation. The FHIR Standard comes with a set of defined operations (such as $everything) but a custom operation comes in handy when you need to create some extra functionality that goes beyond the set of standard FHIR operations. The docs take you step-by-step (though this comment may be helpful to those of you just getting started). One thing I would highlight, purely for aesthetic purposes, is how to syntactically name your function such that you can call it with hyphens.

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Announcement Vishal Pallerla · Sep 1, 2025

#InterSystems Demo Games entry


⏯️ Health Evolve: Transforming Unstructured Data

Did you know that 80% of healthcare data is stuck in unstructured formats such as fax? If you take a walk down to Mass General in Boston, you'll literally see a state-of-the-art MRI machine next to a fax machine. Healthcare keeps building incredible new technology but can't let go of legacy technology. We call this the "legacy modernization paradox". This short film follows a care manager at Blue Plan who spends her days doing chart reviews, reading faxes line-by-line, struggling to provide her members the care they need. Everything changes when Blue Plan pilots InterSystems Health Evolve, a solution that transforms her faxes into machine-readable FHIR data ready for AI and analysis. To access our fully working Text-to-FHIR prototype, visit HealthEvolve.de.

Presenters:
🗣 @Vishal Pallerla, Sales Architect, InterSystems
🗣 @Erica Song, Sales Engineer, InterSystems
🗣 @Louis Kabelka, Sales Engineer, InterSystems
🗣 Zelong Wang, Sales Engineer, InterSystems
🗣 John Murtha, Health Plan Executive, InterSystems

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Announcement Tani Frankel · Sep 1, 2025

#InterSystems Demo Games entry


⏯️ Being READY to Tackle Healthcare Enterprise Challenges in a Few Clicks

Managed Cloud Solutions to Help Streamline Your Health Services.

This demo showcases composing several InterSystems Managed Cloud Services to solve various use-cases.

The video is actually built of 6 short chapters (each ~2.5 minutes long) showing each part of the story, demoing a different service.

You can watch each "chapter" individually if you're interested in a specific service, but there is value in viewing the whole composition and observing the full flow.

  • 0:00Health Connect Cloud - Medical Device MQTT - HL7v2 for Hospital Operation Systems
  • 2:29FHIR Server & FHIR Transformation Service - HL7v2 to FHIR & Repository for Regulation & Exchange
  • 5:21FHIR SQL Builder - Providing standard relational access to FHIR data
  • 7:22 "FHIR IntelliChat" (see note below) - Natural human language chat with FHIR Server
  • 9:37OMOP Solution - FHIR to OMOP transformation & OMOP database with OHDSI tools compliance
  • 12:54InterSystems Data Studio for Health - Creating a multi data/app sources fabric 

[Note the "FHIR IntelliChat" part is not an actual formal InterSystems service, it is just a demonstration of a possibility (based on this solution by @José Pereira) ]

Presenters:
🗣 @Tani Frankel, Sales Engineer Manager, InterSystems
🗣 @Keren Skubach, Senior Sales Engineer, InterSystems
🗣 @Ariel Glikman, Sales Engineer, InterSystems

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