From Spreadsheets to FHIR and Research Databases: Digitizing Medication Data in Elderly Care Within the RM4Health...

Medication management in long-term care remains largely paper-based, resulting in fragmented records, transcription errors, and limited reuse opportunities. In the Portuguese use case of the RM4Health project, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Vagos adopted a structured datasheet template with embedded validations as the single point of entry for medication data. Two services were developed to convert XLS-based medication data into HL7 FHIR MedicationStatement resources and produce CSV files for semi-automated import into a REDCap database. The work also demonstrated the feasibility of converting semantically annotated REDCap exports back into FHIR resources, enabling bidirectional flows. Initial use indicates that the template is easy to adopt, while downstream partners may benefit from automated integration into clinical and research systems. This experience demonstrates how low-friction changes at the entry point, combined with open standards, can support data flows in long-term care settings.