Discover the keys to seamless health tech integration with insights from leading industry experts. This article delves into practical strategies such as prioritizing FHIR & API architecture, utilizing cloud integrations, and empowering patients with data ownership. Gain valuable knowledge on preparing for future integration and enabling open APIs & EHR partnerships to stay ahead in the evolving healthcare landscape.
- Prioritize FHIR & API Architecture
- Utilize Cloud Integrations For Access
- Integrate Practice Management Systems
- Enable Open APIs & EHR Partnerships
- Use System-Driven Approach & Standards
- Prepare For Future Integration
- Empower Patients With Data Ownership
Prioritize FHIR & API Architecture
One of the biggest challenges in healthcare is getting different health tech systems to communicate seamlessly. I experienced this firsthand when a family member had to see multiple specialists, each using different electronic health records (EHRs) that couldn’t share information efficiently. This resulted in duplicate tests, delays in care, and frustrating administrative roadblocks—a problem that could have been avoided with better interoperability.
To address these challenges, here are three key steps that have proven effective in integrating different health tech systems:
1. Implementing FHIR & API-Driven Architecture
By adopting Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), healthcare providers can standardize data exchange across platforms. Using RESTful APIs, systems can plug and play with minimal friction, ensuring that patient records, lab results, and imaging reports sync across hospitals, telemedicine platforms, and remote monitoring devices. This reduces data silos and speeds up treatment decisions.
2. AI-Powered Data Mapping & Smart Middleware
Different EHRs store data in varied formats, making integration complex. AI-driven data transformation engines automatically map, clean, and normalize records so that even incompatible systems can communicate. Additionally, natural language processing (NLP) extracts meaningful insights from unstructured clinical notes, reducing the manual burden of sorting through fragmented data.
3. Blockchain-Backed Health Identity & Secure Data Exchange
One of the most frustrating issues in healthcare is patients lacking control over their own medical records. By leveraging blockchain, patient data can be stored in a secure, decentralized system, allowing for tamper-proof, permissioned access between healthcare providers. This reduces redundant testing, ensures instant record verification, and strengthens data security in compliance with HIPAA and GDPR regulations.
Key Takeaways for Better Interoperability:
- Use standardized data exchange protocols like FHIR to ensure compatibility across EHRs and telehealth systems.
- Integrate AI-driven middleware to clean and map data efficiently, reducing errors and delays.
- Empower patients with blockchain-based health identities for secure, real-time access to medical records.
Murray Seaton
Founder and CEO of Hypervibe / Health & Fitness Entrepreneur, Hypervibe (Vibration Plates)
Utilize Cloud Integrations For Access
Rural healthcare facilities often face significant interoperability challenges due to limited IT infrastructure, outdated systems, and constrained financial resources. To address this, I’ve prioritized cloud-based integrations that minimize the need for extensive on-site hardware, making system upgrades more accessible and cost-effective. Cloud solutions enable seamless data exchange between rural providers and larger healthcare networks, ensuring that patient records remain consistent across different care settings. Telehealth platforms have been instrumental in bridging the gap, allowing rural clinicians to access real-time patient information and collaborate with specialists in urban centers.
By implementing standardized data-sharing protocols and ensuring compliance with interoperability standards like HL7 and FHIR, I’ve facilitated smoother communication between disparate systems. This approach not only enhances care coordination but also improves patient outcomes by eliminating gaps in information transfer. By focusing on scalable, vendor-neutral solutions, I’ve helped rural providers overcome interoperability barriers without disrupting their existing workflows, ensuring continuity of care and improved healthcare accessibility.
Leanna Kurnel
Director of Business Development, New Jersey Recovery Solutions
Integrate Practice Management Systems
One of the biggest challenges in integrating different health tech systems within a healthcare ecosystem is ensuring seamless communication between platforms while maintaining accuracy and security. We’ve tackled this by carefully selecting digital health tools that complement our multidisciplinary approach. With over 30 years of experience in physical therapy and healthcare management, I’ve seen firsthand how fragmented systems can lead to inefficiencies, miscommunication, and gaps in patient care.
To overcome this, we implemented a centralized practice management system that integrates physical therapy, Pilates, remedial massage, podiatry, and nutrition services. This allows our team to share real-time patient data securely, reducing duplication of information and improving treatment continuity. Additionally, we’ve adopted telehealth solutions that sync with our in-clinic records, ensuring that both remote and in-person consultations maintain the same level of detail and accuracy.
A great example of this in action was when we integrated our practice management system with wearable technology used by some of our athletes and post-rehabilitation clients. By syncing real-time movement data with our clinical records, we could track patient progress more effectively and adjust treatment plans accordingly. For one elite runner recovering from knee surgery, this meant using gait analysis data from their wearable device to refine their rehabilitation exercises, ultimately leading to a faster and more precise recovery.
My background in musculoskeletal rehabilitation, combined with an understanding of health tech trends, allowed us to create a system that not only streamlines operations but also enhances patient outcomes. Ensuring interoperability across these platforms has been crucial in delivering integrated, high quality care while keeping up with the evolving demands of modern healthcare.
Peter Hunt
Director & Physiotherapist, The Alignment Studio
Enable Open APIs & EHR Partnerships
A key step toward this goal has been to partner with health tech platforms that allow open application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable seamless data interoperability. We digitized our order and tracking process with other health applications within the fitness ecosystem of the tenant—e.g., integrating our e-commerce system with MyFitnessPal and Cronometer, so customers could synchronize their nutritional intake with their health records. Not only has this integration enhanced the user experience, but it has also allowed healthcare providers greater insight into patient progress. For instance, a recent case study showed that patients who used this approach were 30% more likely to stick to their prescribed meal plans, resulting in improved health outcomes and greater satisfaction.
Another major initiative we’ve undertaken is partnering with electronic health record (EHR) vendors to establish a bidirectional flow of information. For example, by partnering with the likes of Epic and Cerner, we have been able to integrate our products into the systems used by healthcare providers, and allow them to recommend our products through their EHR systems and then receive feedback about compliance and progress.
This has been especially powerful for our customers who are diabetic, as it enables us to dynamically adjust meal plans based on what blood sugars are running. In fact, a pilot program conducted with a network of endocrinologists demonstrated a 25% increase in glycemic control for participants using our system integrated into their regimen. These are steps that reinforce our mission of removing silos in the healthcare ecosystem, and making sure that the products and services that we develop with our partners are accessible but also closely knitted with the continuum of care.
Kevin Huffman
Doctor of Osteopathic Med| Bariatric Physician| CEO & Founder, Ambari Nutrition
Use System-Driven Approach & Standards
Interoperability challenges are inevitable in the integration of health tech solutions, but one effective means of overcoming them is to use a system-driven approach based on standards to ensure seamless data exchange and compatibility across systems. One of the earliest steps I’ve taken is making industry standards such as HL7 FHIR and DICOM for imaging part of our workflow, which allows for seamless sharing of information between EHRs, telehealth platforms and diagnostic systems, while also keeping it consistent and accessible.
In addition, I’ve focused on an API-first approach to enable real-time data exchange using RESTful APIs in this integration which can scale and work on multiple platforms. Health systems always use diverse data formats, which is why I also worked on data mapping and normalization providing data mapped to standardized terminologies, like SNOMED, LOINC, and ICD-10, for standardized patient records and clinical workflows.
Another major step has been using interoperability engines such as Mirth Connect or Redox, which essentially serve as middleware to facilitate integration between processes, enabling transformation, validation, and routing of messages across both legacy and newer systems. Simultaneously, the need for security and compliance with HIPAA, GDPR and HITECH regulations has been paramount. I’ve put in place role-based access controls (RBAC), encryption protocols, and audit logs in order to preserve patient privacy and data security.
Ultimately, successful interoperability is as much about collaboration as it is about technology. I’ve partnered with providers, IT teams and vendors to perform interoperability testing using IHE Connectathons, sandbox environments, and manage finding and fixing any integration issues before going into production. By making these advancements, I have helped build and deploy seamless, efficient and secure health tech ecosystems that improve care coordination, data availability and overall patient outcomes.
Nathan Barz
Financial Advisor, Management Expert, Founder and CEO, DocVA
Prepare For Future Integration
Interoperability remains healthcare technology’s greatest challenge, particularly in emerging markets like the Philippines where system fragmentation is common. Our approach has been pragmatic rather than idealistic—focusing on creating strategic bridges and preparing for future integration. While there aren’t strict interoperability requirements in the Philippines yet, we’ve been proactive in several ways.
We’ve participated in government-led discussions about future healthcare data standards, positioning our systems to be ready when formal frameworks emerge. We believe in being prepared rather than reactive. We’ve also established open communication channels with hospitals, HMOs, laboratories, and medical societies to understand their data needs. This collaborative approach has allowed us to design our systems with flexibility in mind, ready to connect with other platforms when the time comes.
What we’ve learned is that interoperability isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s about relationships and communication. Our systems are designed with this future in mind, using modern API approaches that can adapt to various requirements. This preparation has already helped us create smoother workflows with partner institutions, reducing administrative burden for healthcare providers and improving the patient experience across care settings.
Dennis Seymour
Head of Growth, SeriousMD
Empower Patients With Data Ownership
A common issue in interoperability is that patient data often gets locked into proprietary systems, creating barriers to seamless care. To address this, I’ve focused on empowering patients to own and control their health data, ensuring they have direct access to their medical records without unnecessary restrictions. By implementing comprehensive patient portals that integrate with EHRs and wearable device data, individuals can securely access, manage, and share their health information across providers.
Encouraging patient-driven data exchange reduces dependency on closed-system integrations, ensuring continuity of care while enhancing patient autonomy. Prioritizing user-friendly design and strict privacy compliance has been crucial in making these tools accessible and secure. If the platforms aren’t intuitive or properly protected, adoption rates decline, and security risks increase. Educating both patients and providers on the benefits of data ownership has helped drive engagement and trust, ultimately improving data interoperability across the healthcare ecosystem while fostering a more patient-centered approach to healthcare technology.
Randy Kunik
CEO, Kunik Orthodontics
