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Section 1c: FHIR®
Section 2: Clinical and Administrative Domains
Section 3: Implementation Guides

HL7 FHIR® Implementation Guide: International Patient Access (IPA), Release 1

DESCRIPTION

The International Patient Access (IPA) standard enables regulators, empower patients, guides app developers, and promises greater consistency across countries for multinational apps and FHIR servers.

IPA defines the standard methods by which a patient app may be granted secure, simple authorized access to a minimal, but international baseline of clinical content.

 

See the standard at http://hl7.org/fhir/uv/ipa/STU1

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

HL7 FHIR® Implementation Guide: International Patient Access (IPA), Release 1 may also go by the following names or acronyms:

"HL7 FHIR® IG: International Patient Access (IPA), R1", IPA

BENEFITS

By concretely enabling multi-national interoperability, IPA benefits a range of different actors -- 

  • For patients, greater access to health data empowers them to standardly and computably access and retain their digital health data.
  • For regulators and national specification authors, the IPA specification provides a starting point to jumpstart a national health API ecosystem, with an emphasis on patient access. The IPA FHIR profiles are the result of an analysis of existing national base profiles, and is the lowest common denominator globally.
  • For app developers, IPA outlines the global base set of access and security mechanisms and content format. This increases the size of the addressable market for apps, both in terms of geography and of systems.
  • For systems vendors, IPA defines a base set of functionality, enabling less adaptation and custom work when the system is deployed to a new market. More apps and other systems are readily interoperable with the system.
  • For healthcare systems, adoption of IPA means less expensive and more robust systems, as fewer market-specific customizations are required. Support of IPA will also enable healthcare systems access to a wide ecosystem of interoperable apps.

IMPLEMENTATIONS/CASE STUDIES

  • Argonaut Project
  • Epic
  • Canada Health Infoway
  • HL7 Finland
  • Sensotrend Oy
  • The Commons Project Foundation

DEVELOPMENT BACKGROUND

The IPA specification has two goals:

  1. Secure, simple authorized access to data. IPA defines how apps are authorized to access data using RESTful FHIR APIs and the widely deployed HL7 SMART on FHIR capability. By standardizing the security layer, IPA enables secure, modern authorization and authentication. By standardizing the RESTful FHIR APIs, IPA encourages commonality in different jurisdictions.
  2. Familiar data types and profiles. The IPA specification defines a minimal set of FHIR profiles which describe an international baseline and example clinical content. These FHIR profiles describe the content to be globally harmonized, based upon known existing country specific base profiles.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

HL7 FHIR® Implementation Guide: International Patient Access (IPA), Release 1

STU DOCUMENTS

HL7 FHIR® Implementation Guide: International Patient Access (IPA), Release 1 See the standard at http://hl7.org/fhir/uv/ipa/STU1/. (Submit Feedback on STU)

TOPIC

  • Patient Care

BALLOT TYPE

  • STU

STATUS DATE

2023-03-26

RESPONSIBLE WORK GROUP

Patient Care

PRODUCT TYPE

  • Implementation Guide

STAKEHOLDERS

  • Clinical and Public Health Laboratories
  • EHR, PHR Vendors
  • Emergency Services Providers
  • Health Care IT Vendors
  • HIS Vendors
  • Regulatory Agency

FAMILY

  • FHIR

CURRENT STATE

  • Active

REALM

  • Universal