#FHIR

JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight, text-based format designed for structured data interchange. It represents data objects consisting of key–value pairs and arrays, and it is entirely language-independent.

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.

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.

I know that people who are completely new to VS Code, Git, Docker, FHIR, and other tools can sometimes struggle with setting up the environment. So I decided to write an article that walks through the entire setup process step by step to make it easier to get started.

I’d really appreciate it if you could leave a comment at the end - let me know if the instructions were clear, if anything was missing, or if there’s anything else you'd find helpful.

The setup includes:

✅ VS Code – Code editor
✅ Git – Version control system
✅ Docker – Runs an instance of IRIS for Health Community
✅ VS Code REST Client Extension – For running FHIR API queries
✅ Python – For writing FHIR-based scripts
✅ Jupyter Notebooks – For AI and FHIR assignments

Before you begin: Ensure you have administrator privileges on your system.

In addition to reading the guide, you can also follow the steps in the videos:

For Windows

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyvuHbxCwCY
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Overview

My main goal of this article was to prove the use of InterSystems IRIS for Health for REST FHIR interoperability between multiple applications. In this use case, some initiating application makes a REST call to IRIS for Health (which is merely a passthrough for REST calls) to retrieve FHIR data from an Oracle Health R4 FHIR repository. Ideally, it simplifies the syntax for calling the Oracle Health APIs.

An extension “extends” or enhances a FHIR resource or a data element in a custom way. The extension can be added to the root of a resource, such as “Patient.ethnicity” in US Core profile, and they can be added to individual elements such as HumanName, Address or Identifier.

Did you know that you can also add an extension to a primitive data type?

Primitives usually store a single item and are the most basic element in FHIR. For example: "Keren", false, 1234, 12/08/2024 etc.

For example, the patient resources might look like this:

Over the past couple of months, I have been working on the SMART on FHIR EHR Launch to test the capabilities of IRIS for Health using two open-source apps from CSIRO: SMART-EHR-Launcher and SMART Forms App. This journey has been incredibly interesting, and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to work on this task and explore more of IRIS for Health’s potential.

Hi colleagues!

Often, while developing a frontend app or any other communication vs REST API, it is worth having a Swagger UI - a test UI for the REST API that follows Open API 2.0 spec. Usually, it is quite a handful as it lets have quick manual tests vs REST API and its responses and the data inside.

Recently I've introduced the Swagger support to the InterSystems IRIS FHIR template for FHIR R4 API:

How to get it working.

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.

Hi developers!

This will be a very short article as in April 2025 with Lovable and other Prompt-to-UI tools it becomes possible to build the frontend with prompting. Even to the folks like me who is not familiar with modern UI techics at all.

Well, I know at least the words javascript, typescript and ReactJS, so in this very short article we will be building the ReactJS UI to InterSystems FHIR server with Lovable.ai.

Let's go!

Hi Community,

In this article, I will introduce my application iris-fhir-bridge

IRIS-FHIR-Bridge is a robust interoperability engine built on InterSystems IRIS for Health, designed to transform healthcare data across multiple formats into FHIR and vice versa. It leverages the InterSystems FHIR Object Model (HS.FHIRModel.R4.*) to enable smooth data standardization and exchange across modern and legacy healthcare systems.

What is XML?

Hi guys,

I am looking for a way to search for FHIR Encounter resources from an InterSystems FHIR server where there period.start is before or after a certain time. I can´t get my head around which would be a correct way to do this since docs and FHIR spec is not clear to me which fields can be used for searching with wich prefixes.