CQM Endpoints
The company has added brand new CQM endpoints that allow developers to update apps so that they can meet MIPS requirements. MIPS (Merit-Based Incentive Payment System) is part of U.S. healthcare legislation, and the program aims to provide value-based incentives to improve patient outcomes. The regulation requires that healthcare providers accurately report patient outcomes to MIPS. The new CQM endpoints allow data to be pulled from DrChrono and used for reporting purposes or other healthcare app features.
Clinical Notes Endpoints
Clinical notes endpoints can be used to build out clinical forms for healthcare providers. Some types of forms are standard such as forms for allergies and medications. However, sometimes developers need to be able to create custom forms for healthcare providers. For example, a hand surgeon would need a custom form that includes questions like “will the surgery be on the right hand or the left?” and “what muscles will the surgery involve?” The clinical notes endpoints allow developers to get into really specific details when it comes to clinical forms.
Tasks Endpoints
The company has rolled out a new tasks system which includes endpoints that allow apps to read and write tasks in DrChrono. App users can assign tasks to others, tag other users, and create specific tasks for themselves or others to complete. For example, a physician could create a task list for a patient to follow- what the patient needs to do to take care of their diabetes. The tasks software is geared for physicians and patients, but the endpoints are available for developers. Developers could create analytics that determine why only 65% of a task list was completed for example.
Billing Endpoints
The company has rolled out a new version of DrChrono Medical Billing which includes a new API. The API allows applications to access a variety of billing information. The API is read and write so applications can programmatically create, retrieve, update, and delete billing information in DrChrono. The old billing system has no API endpoints, and the company plans to deprecate the old system eventually. Anyone who wants to use the Billing API needs to be on the new billing system.
Labs API Endpoints
Back in October 2015, DrChrono released the Clinical IFrame API which allows clinical information and approved applications to be inserted into medical records. The API can only display the information in an iframe; it does not allow unstructured data to be placed in DrChrono. Developers had to come up with workarounds if a provider wanted unstructured data from external labs systems to be retrieved and stored in DrChrono. Daniel Kivatinos, COO and Co-Founder of DrChrono, told ProgrammableWeb that there are no plans to eliminate the Clinical IFrame API. However, developers now have the option to use the new Labs API endpoints to enable apps to place data in DrChrono in a format that is both read and write.
Webhooks
The company has added many new webhooks to the DrChrono API. These webhooks provide developers with many more options when it comes to checking for changes in DrChrono. “A lot of developers will keep pinging our servers to see if there are changes, but they don’t have to do that with a webhook,” said Kivatinos. “Developers can now choose to use the webhooks to check for changes in DrChrono.”
Developers can use webhooks to check for a broad range of changes in DrChrono. For example, there is a new vaccine administer webhook. If a patient needs a vaccine shot, the developer could create a webhook pinging them anytime a vaccine has been assigned.
FHIR API
FHIR is a standards framework created by Health Level Seven International (HL7) that features a RESTful APITrack this API designed to enable the exchange of healthcare information between applications and systems. DrChrono has launched a FHIR API that focuses on the patient side of the platform. The company is building out endpoints to the FHIR standard so that patients will be able to push and pull any data they want via DrChrono. For example, a patient could have a blood pressure cuff or a wearable. Using the FHIR API, the data generated by and stored in these devices could be pushed and pulled between a blood pressure app and the patient side of the record in DrChrono.
Learn More about DrChrono
“The ethos of DrChrono is to open up every piece of data to developers to empower them. Part of our mission is to build a developer-centric EHR. Most EHRs are data silos that lock data in, and it is an extremely hard process for a developer to work with,” Kivatinos explained to ProgrammableWeb. “I recall when Michael my cofounder and I started DrChrono, we were looking for an EHR that we could build on; there was nothing out there. What made things worse is that the EHRs were charging integration fees, trying to charge startup companies thousands of dollars to get access. If we couldn’t find a developer-centric EHR to work with, we would build one and allow developers to get access to develop on for free.”