Gajen Sunthara, who spent a year as a Presidential Innovation Fellow with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, says that patients must be at the center of the healthcare system and that application programming interfaces (APIs) can help, in a post to the Health IT Buzz Blog.
Sunthara (pictured) worked on applying APIs to improve data access, creating, among other things, a prototype personal health record (PHR) called myHealth API, which enables patients to aggregate their data from various providers across multiple data access points using the Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) framework. Sunthara previously served as principal software architect at the Innovation Acceleration Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and wrote his master’s thesis at Harvard on streamlining surgeon workflow using Google Glass,according to MedTech Boston.
Creating a single app that combines patient-generated health data from wearable devices and visuals from lab results, as well as medications, immunizations, genomics and other types of health data, can create a powerful, comprehensive view of a patient’s health, he says. His prototype, Sunthara notes, gives patients “drag-and-drop” control over their data and privacy
In addition, myHealth API allows patients to share their data with others. For instance, a Type 1 diabetes patient on a continuous glucose monitoring device could share that device information with a doctor through an API, he says.
Demand and participation eventually will drive use of open public APIs in healthcare for sharing information between entities, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra said earlier this year, but providers must be more willing to take the plunge.
Previous fellows worked on improving Blue Button functionality, and one of the fellows working within the Department of Veterans Affairs recently spearheaded an initiative to create better prosthetic limbs.
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