Role of API & Use Cases for Healthcare Website
Healthcare API integration offers a plethora of perks to healthcare providers, patients, and healthcare organizations, paving the way for sounder clinical judgments and enhanced patient results.
The novel coronavirus pandemic encouraged healthcare professionals to embrace remote healthcare solutions. Many physicians saw their telehealth visit volume increase by a factor of 50 to 175.
To build a remote healthcare platform, you can integrate with healthcare API solutions. The global healthcare API market size is expected to grow at a rate of 6.3% from 2020 to 2027.
What is an API in healthcare?
An API (Application Programming Interface) in healthcare refers to a set of protocols, standards, and tools that allow different healthcare applications and systems to communicate with each other and interchange data seamlessly. When it comes to healthcare integrations, providing top-notch security to the patient’s data is a must. A versatile healthcare API integration with HIPAA compliance pays off!
Through high-performance API integrations, you can virtually contact the patients, note down the appointments, collect the consultation charges, send reminders, and provide digital healthcare experiences from anywhere at any time without any disruptions.
In this blog, we have talked about the importance of API, how to integrate API, and the top healthcare APIs as well. Our experience with healthcare professionals and knowledge of API development has enabled us to write a detailed blog about the role of APIs in healthcare.
Let’s dive right in.
How Does API Work on a Healthcare Website?
APIs are a set of protocols that use the concept of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and allow applications to communicate with each other using a simple set of commands.
The easiest way to understand the working of APIs is to think about a common scenario between a customer, a waiter, and a restaurant. A customer places an order through a waiter. The waiter then takes down the order and conveys it to the cook. After the cook prepares the food, the waiter delivers the food to the customer.
Source:Auth0.com
This is exactly how an API works. The customer here is the healthcare website developer, the waiter is the API, and the cook is the webserver.
APIs act as messengers delivering one application’s request to another and return a response in real-time. If you like to explore more on the importance of API integration, then take a look at our blog.
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Healthcare API Use Cases
1. Bridging the Gap Between Healthcare Providers & Patients
By integrating API with your IoT devices, your patient’s data will instantly be reflected in your dashboard. Then, based on the record, you can provide treatment. This treatment-based information will be displayed on the platform of patients and saved in your system. This cuts the overhead costs of decision-makers and improves treatment efficiency.
2. Integrating Healthcare Operations
Clinical API is for internal purposes for collecting employee data, staff’s requirements, improves data management, etc. Also, it facilitates record sharing with other hospitals and medical offices. This integration reduces your overtime costs, medical errors, and better serves patients.
3. Data Integration
EHR API integration allows patients to leverage health fitness trackers and other smart healthcare devices by connecting them with electronic health record (EHR) systems.
4. Patient Information
With healthcare APIs, you can add the patient’s information into a system that works with insurance companies. The APIs will determine the patient’s coverage for medication or insurance policies, and others.
5. Mobile Health
Mobile health or mHealth transforms clinical workflows by bringing critical data to the point of care through mobile or web applications. Also, patients can use mHealth solutions to pay for their medical care.
Benefits of Integrating API with Your Healthcare Website
Before learning how to choose the right API for your healthcare system, let us explore the benefits of integrating healthcare APIs. On account of the API integration, you can experience various perks like patient satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, security, making work easier, innovative practices, and many more.
- Healthcare APIs make the lives of both patients & professionals easier and cut down the overhead costs. It allows to monitor the health conditions of patients and provides more or less accurate data. Patients can share this data directly with their physicians. The healthcare providers can access the data and begin with the treatment
- APIs when used in healthcare serves the purposes of doctors, scientists, patients, and developers on the whole. Doctors can use it innovatively to get connected with the patients, scientists can leverage it for medical research, patients can use it for assessing their health conditions, and developers can use it for building intuitive healthcare software
- The use of APIs can open up the closed doors for innovations and implant solid changes in the revolution of the healthcare services sector
- Patient’s health records are for sure sensitive. APIs take up the responsibility for securing all your data. It encrypts the data while sharing and blocks the access of unauthenticated users. Moreover, it records the activities like who accessed, which data sources had been viewed/edited/removed, at what time it all happened
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How to Choose API for Your Healthcare Website?
There are many APIs in the market for various purposes. Based on your requirement you should choose the right API. Here, we have listed a few important things to look for in an API before integration.
1. API Features
First, be aware of the features you need and filter your selection based on that.
2. Clear documentation
It’s cucial that documentation should clearly make readers understand the platform, the working, and others. For example, the TVmaze API provides clear documentation with sample code, making it possible for users to implement coding quickly.
3. Data Formats
It would look good if the data expressed in various lighter and easy-to-use formats including XML, JSON, etc. This type of lighter data format makes it easily readable. Research your requirements and target audience, and choose the right format.
4. API Limits
Sometimes, inorder to avoid abuses by API customers, it limits in systems open to the pubic. Based on the type of customers these limits would be flexible. Before managing the API limits, you must know how to administer them in such a way that we do not exceed the limit. This prevents you from complexities.
6. Programming Languages
Every API is complex in its own way. Therefore, it is important that your API provider gives examples of code in the programming language or a library. Something similar to, Google Analytics and its large number of libraries has the most-updated information about the latest used programming languages.
7. Community & Support
The API provider should provide support forums, and that the community should be active. One of the main reasons for eBay API’s success is, because the application operates as a platform, in such a way that it greatly facilitates its use both inside and outside of eBay.
Keep this checklist as a reference and choose a perfect API for your healthcare website.
Top 3 Healthcare APIs in 2024
When it comes to integration with user-friendly resources, API would top the list. Below, we have listed the top APIs that can be a great help for hospitals, clinics, and other medical centers.
1. Human API
Human API is a consumer-centric health data platform that integrates with 90% of US hospitals and over 300+ wearable devices and fitness apps. It allows patients to share their health data with insurance providers, companies that provide healthcare advice, and others. By making the consumer’s health data liquid, this API allows consumers to take control of their data.
2. Doximity
With over 70% of U.S doctors, NPs, physician assistants, PAs, pharmacists, Doximity becomes the largest community of healthcare professionals. 83% of physicians say they have better patient pick-up rates using Doximity’s Dialer feature. This API is supported with the HIPAA security system through which the calls between you and your patients are encrypted and are not recorded.
3. Drchrono API
DrChrono API is an intuitive healthcare API through which you can integrate your entire workflow including patient scheduling, patient engagement, medical billing, and much more. It’s the #1 mobile EHR as voted by Black Book. It is the #1 EHR platform to integrate with iOS devices and desktop.
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Bottom Line
With API integrations, you can handle everything without intervening manually. As APIs connect with new systems and provide innovative plus virtual healthcare solutions, you can effectively provide a better experience to your patients.
Develop your healthcare website with API compatibility to capture the attention of more patients. Also, you can personalize the API as per your preferences and requirements.
To build custom APIs, take assistance from our proficient healthcare developers at ColorWhistle. We have mastered the end-to-end process of API integration and healthcare web development that includes managing, monitoring, and monetizing. Also, our developers are experienced in developing high-performance custom APIs, open-source APIs, WordPress REST API, and third-party APIs.
To get in touch with us, all you have to do is send us a message or give us a call at +1 210-787-3600. We are happy to build patient-centric API solutions for your healthcare website!
If you have any questions regarding our healthcare API development services, let us know in the comments below. We are ready to respond to you.
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