Integration · FHIR R4
FHIR R4, used where it helps
EDFlow accepts FHIR R4 Bundles and Subscription notifications, uses FHIR for care-team and location enrichment, and supports a SMART on FHIR launch for staff. Only statuses and times are kept: result content is dropped unread.
At a glance
Mapped resources
Encounter, ServiceRequest, Specimen, ImagingStudy, DiagnosticReport status, Appointment and CareTeam.
Subscriptions
R4 Subscriptions Backport notifications, with sequence numbers for health and gap detection.
SMART on FHIR
Backend services with signed JWT client assertions, and the staff EHR launch.
Resources we map
| Resource | Kept |
|---|---|
| Encounter (class EMER)[1] | Arrival, triage time, location, participants, departure and disposition |
| ServiceRequest | Order existence, category (lab, imaging, ECG, consult) and status |
| Specimen | Collected and received times |
| ImagingStudy | Started and available |
| DiagnosticReport | Status and issued time only; result, conclusion and presented form dropped unread |
| Appointment | The scheduled time of a linked order |
| CareTeam, Practitioner, PractitionerRole, Location | Names, roles and location mapping |
Where FHIR fits
FHIR remains valuable for three things: enrichment (practitioner names and roles, locations), a staff SMART launch from inside the EHR, and sites that already run a FHIR relay or subscription product.[2][3] For the live census, the HL7 v2 feeds the hospital already runs are faster, cheaper and minimized inside the hospital.
Technical documentation
- FHIR R4 adapterThe FHIR R4 adapter: accepted Bundle types, Subscriptions Backport notifications and resource mappings.
- SMART on FHIR launchThe optional SMART on FHIR launch for staff from inside the EHR.
- Event contractThe normalized event contract: envelope, the 23 event types, prohibited fields, idempotency and ordering.
Frequently asked questions
Can we send FHIR instead of HL7 v2?
Yes, when your site runs a FHIR relay or a subscription product. Send Bundles (including R4 Subscriptions Backport notifications) to the FHIR adapter; they are mapped at once and the raw resources are never stored.
Why isn't FHIR the main feed?
Because EHR FHIR APIs are generally scoped per patient, tracking a whole department in near real time would mean polling each active patient every minute across several resources. FHIR reads also return more data than needed, minimized outside the hospital rather than inside it.
Keep reading
- IntegrationHL7 v2 integration: ADT, orders and result status for the EDHow EDFlow maps HL7 v2 ADT, ORM/OML and ORU messages to real-time emergency department events: triggers, OBR-25 result-status mapping, the reference integration engine channel and signing, with OBX values never read.
- IntegrationOracle Health Millennium integration for real-time ED statusHow EDFlow integrates with Oracle Health Millennium and FirstNet for real-time emergency department status: outbound HL7 v2 through the integration engine, FHIR R4 CareTeam, optional Communication write-back and what to confirm with your team.
- TrustSecurity and privacy: PHIPA, residency and controlsHow EDFlow protects patient privacy in the emergency department: PHIPA roles, minimum-necessary data, Canadian data residency, keyed-hash identifiers, audit logging, staff MFA, penetration testing and responsible disclosure.
Talk to us
See it with your own emergency department in mind
We'll walk through the patient, family and staff views with synthetic data, then map them to your EHR, your workflows and what you want a pilot to prove.
Sources
- [1]FHIR R4 Encounter (opens in a new tab) · HL7 International
- [2]FHIR R4 (4.0.1) specification (opens in a new tab) · HL7 International
- [3]SMART App Launch: Backend Services (opens in a new tab) · HL7 International