Interoperability with multiple Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR^®) profiles and versions

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Computer Science
• Data Standards

Background:

• Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) has grown significantly, leading to multiple versions, Implementation Guides (IGs), and profiles.
• Existing tools inadequately address interoperability challenges between clients and servers with diverse FHIR profiles and versions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a method for evaluating FHIR client/server interoperability across different FHIR resources, profiles, and versions.
• To assess the feasibility of FHIR servers supporting multiple FHIR IGs.

Main Methods:

• Proposes the FHIR Interoperability Table (FHIT) analysis method.
• FHIT aligns sender/receiver profiles by data 'catchment,' determines profile relationships, and interprets data exchange feasibility.
• Demonstrates FHIT by analyzing FHIR exchange between US Core IG and International Patient Summary IG.

Main Results:

• The FHIT method successfully analyzes FHIR-based data exchange.
• Identifies interoperability issues within FHIR networks.
• Shows potential for deriving new profiles to resolve conflicts through profile intersections.

Conclusions:

• The proposed FHIT methodology effectively identifies interoperability problems in FHIR networks.
• New profiles can be derived to resolve identified conflicts.
• Further development of tools and structured methods for expressing FHIR profile catchments is needed.