APIs in Healthcare : Benefits and Use Cases 2025

The present healthcare landscape is mainly driven by technology. In this digital transformation that is slowly but steadily taking over in the healthcare industry, APIs have emerged as silent yet powerful enablers of innovation, efficiency, and patient-centered care. By seamlessly connecting disparate systems and breaking down data silos, APIs in healthcare is empowering patients and providers and streamlining workflows, leading to a more connected and efficient healthcare ecosystem. In this blog, we discuss healthcare APIs, the benefits and challenges of implementing APIs in healthcare, and popular use cases. 

What is an API?

Before discussing healthcare API, we can first talk about API's in general. Application Programming Interface(API) is a set of protocols that allow different software applications to communicate with each other by sharing data, functionality and features. If there are two different applications that run in different operating languages that need to exchange information, they only need to know how to call an API. API acts as a translator that converts the information into a cross-application format.

Consider an example of booking a flight online. Instead of having to search the website of every single airline, a travel booking application allows us to book different flights in the same place. API is what makes this possible. The same goes for e-commerce sites, which provide options like Pay securely with UPI, PayPal, etc. The e-commerce website can connect to third-party sites like PayPal using an API.

What are APIs in healthcare?

In hospitals, data is often stored in different systems which makes it difficult to share and access data often leading to data silos. Healthcare APIs resolve this issue by facilitating data exchange between different systems, no matter the format in which the data is stored. 

API standards in healthcare

These are some of the common standards related to data exchange via API. These standards collectively address interoperability, security, and usability challenges, forming the backbone of modern healthcare data exchange.

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)

Developed by HL7, FHIR is a leading API-centric standard for exchanging electronic health records (EHRs). It organizes patient data into discrete, uniformly structured units called resources, each with a unique ID. This modular design simplifies interoperability between healthcare systems, enabling developers to build applications that integrate effortlessly with EHR platforms.

USCDI (United States Core Data for Interoperability)

The USCDI defines a set of structured clinical data elements—such as allergies, medications, and lab reports—that can be exchanged via APIs. By standardizing the representation of this dataset, USCDI aims to ensure consistency across platforms, improving interoperability and enabling providers and patients to access critical information reliably.

Security Standards

Healthcare APIs handle protected health information (PHI). Handling such sensitive information necessitates compliance with regulations like HIPAA (in the U.S.) and GDPR (in the EU). These laws prescribe the necessary technologies and procedures that must be in place to safeguard patient data during transmission and storage. Compliance ensures that data is encrypted and only authorized users can view or modify sensitive information, maintaining patient trust and legal adherence.

SMART on FHIR

SMART stands for Substitutable Medical Apps & Reusable Technology. It outlines how to integrate FHIR-enabled EHR systems with third-party applications to securely connect with EHR systems. Leveraging OAuth 2.0, SMART on FHIR ensures patient-authorized access to health data, supporting apps for both providers (e.g., clinical decision tools) and patients (e.g., personal health trackers). 

Type of APIs in healthcare

There are three different types of API in healthcare:

• Internal API

An internal API allows smooth exchange of data that is scattered between different departments and systems, promoting improved data visibility and collaborative care.

• External API

These allow outsiders like patients and other healthcare organizations to safely access hospital data like EHR, improving care coordination and promoting informed decision making.

• Third-party API

These APIs facilitate the integration of devices like Apple Health and Fitbit with hospitals and allow data exchange to enhance patient care. This facilitates remote monitoring and enables intervention by a healthcare professional when needed.

Top 6 use cases of healthcare API 

1. EHR API 

These APIs enable seamless communication between different EHR systems, ensuring that data is standardized and readily available, and not siloed in different departments.

Meditech data API

Meditech's API helps healthcare providers easily connect apps for hospital care or home health services to their EHR systems. Apps used for mobile urgent care (e.g., on-demand doctors), senior care programs, or home health monitoring tools can be easily integrated with this API.

2. Consolidated Patient Data API

Consolidated patient data APIs are a type of API that aggregates patient data from various sources into a single, unified view. This can be extremely helpful for healthcare providers, as it can give them a more complete picture of a patient's health.

Apple Health Records API

The Health Records API integrates data from more than 500 hospitals and clinics and allows patients to access this data on their iPhone. The data collected by the Health Records API includes information such as medical conditions, immunization details, lab results, medications, and more. This allows consumers to access their personal health data easily and helps in improving their overall health. 

3. Telemedicine API 

A Telemedicine API combines specialized tools and services tailored to support telehealth applications. It simplifies tasks like video consultations, remote patient monitoring, and secure data sharing, ensuring seamless integration and user-friendly experiences

DrChrono API

The Drchrono API enables developers to build applications that interact with the Drchrono EHR platform. Dr chrono lets users telehealth consultations, allows them to conduct video visits from iPhone or iPad and patients medical records, and manage medical documents.

4. Public health content API

Public health information APIs deal with recommendations, statistics, surveys, and other valuable data, systematically reviewed by medical specialists.

WHO data API

The World Health Organization (WHO) built Athena API to connect apps directly to their Global Health Observatory (GHO) database. You can pull country-specific statistics on everything from child nutrition to vaccination rates or disease outbreaks. 

5. Drug data and interactions API

These APIs offer detailed information on drugs, their side effects, and drug interactions

Open FDA

openFDA is an open government platform that offers information related to drugs for both humans and animals, as well as medical devices, foods, tobacco, and more. Related to human drugs, openFDA covers the following aspects:

• Reports of adverse reactions to drugs (like side effects).
• Drug labels and drug-specific info in "Structured Product Labelling (SPL) format (a standard way to share product details).
• Data is tied to National Drug Codes (NDC), which is a unique identifier for every drug sold in the U.S.
• Info on drug recalls (when meds get removed from the market).
• Adverse event reports that include drugs and their individual side effects

5 key benefits of APIs in healthcare

• Interoperatability

API facilitates smooth communication between different systems like EHRs, HIS, laboratory systems, remote monitoring systems, etc. This seamless integration enables patient data to be accessed from anywhere, improving patient outcomes and care coordination.

• Patient engagement

APIs allow patients to access their health records, schedule appointments, and communicate with healthcare providers through telemedicine. Third-party API's also allow real-time patient data to be transferred to healthcare providers. This allows patients to play a proactive role in managing their health and also improves the accessibility to healthcare in general.

• Data analytics

As APIs allow data from different platforms to be connected, healthcare organizations can analyze large volumes of data, which offer valuable insights into the general health of the population, the possibility of a disease outbreak, and evaluation of treatment outcomes. Such timely insights into healthcare data can greatly improve decision making and allow timely action. 

• Improved patient care

Easy data exchange between different departments enables collaborative care, which is one of the cornerstones of patient-centric care. Ability to access data from remote monitoring systems and wearable devices allows doctors to asses risk before hand and provide timely care to patients.

• Scalability

With the help of APIs, healthcare organizations can easily integrate new services and devices into the existing systems without any extensive development. This allows hospitals to grow to meet the demands of patients without disrupting the day-to-day operations. APIs also hold the power to drive innovative changes in healthcare, which can revolutionize patient care and keep healthcare organizations in pace with the latest technological advancements.

Challenges of implementing APIs in healthcare

These are some of the challenges associated with implementing healthcare APIs 

1. Interoperability Gaps: Not all systems use the same technology, causing difficulty when sharing data across platforms.
2. Unauthorized data access: Managing who gets access to what data without violating privacy preferences is difficult.
3. System overload: Adding more integrations could mean more API calls, which can overload internal systems.
4. Data standardization: The lack of available standardized API and data formats can impact data exchange.

Future of Healthcare API 

Despite implementation challenges, healthcare APIs are poised to revolutionize the industry through advancements in interoperability, AI integration, and patient empowerment. AI-powered APIs can help identify disease risks and optimize treatment plans. Enhanced security frameworks like zero trust architecture and blockchain-powered APIs can help address privacy concerns in healthcare API. Cloud-based API's can help in seamless data exchange, remote monitoring, and telemedicine by eliminating physical infrastructure limits.

Conclusion

Healthcare APIs are driving innovation in the field of healthcare by empowering providers to deliver coordinated, evidence-based care while giving patients unprecedented access to their health information. By connecting disparate systems and enabling seamless data exchange, APIs are streamlining workflows, improving patient care, and unlocking new possibilities for healthcare organizations. By prioritizing secure, standardized API adoption, the industry can accelerate its digital transformation, ensuring better outcomes, reduced costs, and a more connected global healthcare landscape. As the healthcare industry continues to embrace digital transformation, APIs will play an increasingly vital role in shaping a more connected, efficient, and patient-centric healthcare ecosystem.