Compare the Top Healthcare APIs in 2025
Healthcare APIs are interfaces that enable different healthcare systems and applications to communicate and exchange data, improving the interoperability and efficiency of healthcare services. These APIs provide secure access to healthcare data, such as patient records, medical history, appointment scheduling, billing information, and more, allowing healthcare providers, insurance companies, and other stakeholders to integrate and share critical information. Healthcare APIs often adhere to strict regulatory standards, such as HIPAA, to ensure data privacy and security. By using healthcare APIs, organizations can streamline workflows, enhance patient care, and improve overall service delivery by enabling seamless data integration between systems. Here's a list of the best healthcare APIs:
-
1
Azure Health Data Services
Microsoft
Azure Health Data Services is a suite of purpose-built technologies for protected health information (PHI) in the cloud. It's built on the global open standards Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)® and Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine (DICOM). Ensure data privacy within compliance boundaries, de-identify data for secondary use, and generate insights with analytics and AI tools. Azure Health Data Services is the evolved version of Azure API for FHIR and offers additional technology and services. Existing customers can continue using the product without disruption to service or change in pricing structure. Unify healthcare data in the cloud to make PHI easier to exchange across the care continuum. Standardize diverse data streams such as clinical, imaging, device, and unstructured data using FHIR, DICOM, and MedTech services.Starting Price: $0.39 per GB per month -
2
Google Cloud Healthcare API
Google
The Google Cloud Healthcare API is a fully managed service that enables secure and scalable data exchange between healthcare applications and solutions. It supports industry-standard protocols and formats, including DICOM, FHIR, and HL7v2, allowing for the ingestion, storage, and analysis of healthcare data within the Google Cloud environment. By integrating with advanced analytics and machine learning tools such as BigQuery, AutoML, and Vertex AI, the API empowers healthcare organizations to derive actionable insights and drive innovation in patient care and operational efficiency. -
3
ROOK
ROOK
ROOK is a comprehensive API solution that enables seamless integration of health data from over 300 wearable devices and data sources into applications. By providing a single integration point, ROOK eliminates the need for developers to perform individual integrations, maintenance, or resolve data disparities for each device. It aggregates and processes data standardizes units, addresses duplicate or missing data points, and delivers ready-to-use, real-time health insights. ROOK's Health Score offers a unified definition of health by utilizing biomarker data from multiple sources, aiding in the prediction of user behaviors and events without requiring additional analysis. It is designed with security in mind, adhering to HIPAA and GDPR compliance standards to ensure data protection. Founded by biomedical engineers with extensive experience in medical devices and hardware-software integrations, ROOK offers expert guidance and support to clients.Starting Price: $399 per month -
4
DrChrono
DrChrono
Increase the efficiency of your medical practice with an all-in-one practice management, electronic health records, and medical billing platform from DrChrono. With its modern and simple interface and dozens of advanced features, DrChrono empowers medical practitioners to better serve their patients. Users can easily schedule patient appointments, check and edit patient charts, and manage billing with ease. -
5
Infermedica API
Infermedica
Infermedica's mission is to make healthcare accessible, convenient, and affordable for everyone worldwide, by automating primary care from symptom to outcome. The company specializes in AI-driven solutions for early symptoms assessment, digital triage and care navigation. Its core product is a Medical Guidance Platform, through which healthcare organizations can introduce solutions for symptoms checking, patient intake, follow-up, call center support and more. Infermedica has been adeptly interweaving cutting edge technologies, including AI, LLMs, and NLP, and proven medical knowledge into their platform. Their solutions achieve 94% of triaging accuracy. Since 2012 it supports leading healthcare organizations such as Allianz Partners, Gothaer, Médis, Microsoft, and Sana Kliniken. Infermedica is now being used in over 30 countries, in more than 20 languages, and has completed more than 22 million successful health checks to date. -
6
NexHealth
NexHealth
Deliver an end-to-end patient experience that integrates in real-time with your practice management system. The only solution that reads and writes data in real-time with your practice management system. We spend most of our engineering resources on creating the best bidirectional integrations with EHR and practice management systems. Now you can develop and deploy your product in weeks, not years. Our engineers consume our own API to build our own doctor-facing SaaS product, so you know you will always get an experience that is tested and can scale. Online patient scheduling allows visitors to see your availability in real-time and schedule appointments on-demand from any location or device. NexHealth scheduling software fully customizes your schedule right out of the box. Our team of product experts helps implement both your calendar of record and your EHR system – no matter how complex your schedule. -
7
Definitive Healthcare
Definitive Healthcare
Access the highest quality data and intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers - updated daily. We help companies across the healthcare ecosystem grow their businesses and create new paths to commercial success. Here are just a few reasons why we’ve been a leader in healthcare commercial intelligence for 10 years and counting. Fueled by powerful data science and AI, we have intelligence for all your commercial needs. Healthcare commercial intelligence untangles the web of data on delivery systems, physicians, payor, patients, government organizations and more to identify the people, opportunities and organizations that are the best fit for your product. Building and selling a product for the healthcare market is complex. Answers to critical questions are often buried in disparate information systems, making centralized insights hard to come by. Healthcare commercial intelligence (HCI) is a new category of software that untangles the web of data on delivery. -
8
HealthAPIx
Google
Make it easy for healthcare organizations, including hospitals and clinics, health plans and life sciences, to connect with app developers and health data partners to build new FHIR API-based digital services. Improve the efficiency and safety of transitions across the continuum of in-patient and out-patient care. Provide targeted personal wellness and prevention guidance to at-risk participants. Empower collaboration between patients, physicians, and healthcare providers to effectively manage chronic conditions. Improve chronic condition management. Deliver patient-centric digital services. Reduce risks during care transitions. Manage, secure, and scale APIs with an enterprise-grade platform that is FHIR-server agnostic. Easily ingest healthcare data from internal, external, or open-source FHIR-ready partners. Deliver on the promise of patient-centric healthcare and data interoperability by quickly launching digital services like new mobile apps. -
9
Redox
Redox
Move past protocols with Redox, the only data platform designed to connect providers, payers, and products. It’s EHR integration, patient data, product workflows, and a world of new healthcare solutions powered by Redox. With the Redox FHIR API you can build and scale your application with a common set of workflows that delivers a consistent experience across every payer, provider, or EHR. Redox delivers where industry standards can’t. From large academic medical centers to small practices and everything in between. Using Redox helps you navigate each provider’s review and maintain consistency of process across new connections. Redox is HITRUST certified and SOC2 compliant. Adopt infrastructure built on a broad culture of security that meets the demands of the healthcare industry. -
10
Validic
Validic
Validic is a comprehensive platform that enhances remote patient monitoring (RPM) by integrating patient-generated health data directly into Electronic Health Records (EHRs). By providing real-time data from over 580 connected health devices, Validic supports healthcare providers in delivering personalized, data-driven care while reducing clinician workload. With the power of Generative AI, the platform automates RPM workflows and generates insights that help clinicians make informed decisions. Designed to scale for populations from 100 to over 100,000 patients, Validic helps improve patient outcomes, engagement, and operational efficiency. -
11
Verifiable
Verifiable
A modern provider data engine delivering real-time verifications and powerful automation to simplify credentialing and provider network management. One place to manage all your provider data and workflows, onboarding, network management, and everything in between. Replace manual verification processes with automation to save time, money and be more compliant by removing human error. Deploy lightning fast verifications and advanced network monitoring wherever your business needs. Advanced credentialing and compliance monitoring to notify you of gaps before they become an issue. Get the most accurate, up-to-date data using our proprietary real-time lookups, all delivered via an API that integrates wherever you need. Finally, a healthcare API that is a pleasure to work with. Customize to your needs and seamlessly integrate with your existing systems and workflows. -
12
The combination of our core strengths, our deep industry experience in health, our advanced technology solutions including options for AI, blockchain, and data and analytics, and our reputation for trust and security, enables Watson Health to support our clients' digital transformations. Through a combination of technology solutions and experienced consulting, we're helping organizations become more efficient, resilient and robust institutions that can deliver on their mission to their communities. See Watson Health solutions that help optimize clinical, financial and operational performance. See Watson Health solutions to apply analytics and improve programs for vulnerable populations. See Watson Health solutions to improve clinical trials and generate real-world evidence. See Watson Health solutions that help payers manage performance, members and business networks. Watson Health solutions that help with benefits analytics, engagement and business continuity.
-
13
Amazon Comprehend Medical
Amazon
Amazon Comprehend Medical is a HIPAA-eligible natural language processing (NLP) service that uses machine learning to extract health data from medical text–no machine learning experience is required. Much of health data today is in free-form medical text like doctors’ notes, clinical trial reports, and patient health records. Manually extracting the data is a time consuming process, while automated rule-based attempts to extract the data don’t capture the full story as they fail to take context into account. As a result, the data remains unusable in large-scale analytics needed to advance the healthcare and life sciences industry and improve patient outcomes and create efficiencies. -
14
Particle Health
Particle Health
At last, healthcare data is accessible nationwide. But “accessibility” doesn’t mean much when the data is practically unusable—stored by thousands of disparate hospitals, networks, and other sources in a hodgepodge of standards and formats. Particle Health’s modern API platform unifies records from over 270 million patients across the United States. We provide a single, secure access point for the data you need to fuel digital healthcare innovations rapidly and at scale. Quickly prototype solutions, optimize workflows, and explore use cases in a fully functional sandbox environment. Accelerate time to market with implementation guides, an intuitive user interface, and code snippets. Particle Health has spent years building the impossibly complex integrations needed to release historically siloed medical records. Because let’s face it—you’ve got bigger fish to fry. -
15
LexisNexis Health Intelligence
LexisNexis
LexisNexis' Health Intelligence EHR solution integrates data and analytics to enhance healthcare outcomes and streamline administrative processes. This platform enables healthcare providers to make data-driven decisions by incorporating real-time patient data, improving clinical workflows, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. By integrating Electronic Health Records (EHR) with powerful analytics, it helps healthcare organizations improve patient care, reduce operational inefficiencies, and drive better outcomes through actionable insights. -
16
1upHealth
1upHealth
1upHealth is a modern data platform designed to facilitate seamless health data exchange and interoperability. Built on the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard, it offers cloud-based, API-powered solutions tailored for payers, providers, digital health companies, and life sciences organizations. The platform enables secure and compliant sharing of high-quality, comprehensive, and timely data, supporting CMS interoperability requirements, clinical and claims data aggregation, patient-mediated data exchange, and health data analytics. 1upHealth's suite of products includes the 1up FHIR Platform for data acquisition and management, 1up Comply for meeting regulatory requirements, 1up Patient Connect to empower members in accessing and sharing their health data, 1up Population Connect for importing patient population data from top EHRs, 1up Exchange for efficient data exchange at the population level, and more. -
17
Rhapsody Integration Engine
Rhapsody
Rhapsody Integration Engine is an intelligent health data integration platform designed to streamline complex healthcare environments. It empowers expert teams to build flexible solutions efficiently and cost-effectively, ensuring seamless data flow across various systems. The engine supports multiple data formats, including FHIR, API, HL7, and custom formats, facilitating interoperability between diverse healthcare applications. With deployment in 31 countries, Rhapsody offers a robust toolkit for intricate integrations, providing flexible deployment options such as private cloud, hosted cloud, or Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS). The platform's comprehensive features include out-of-the-box connectivity, coding options for current and emerging standards, and scalable solutions tailored to healthcare organizations' unique needs. Rhapsody's commitment to data privacy and security ensures compliance with global regulations. -
18
Optum AI Marketplace
Optum
Optum AI Marketplace is a curated ecosystem of AI-powered solutions designed to transform healthcare by providing payers, providers, and partners with tools to deliver better outcomes efficiently. It offers a diverse range of products and services across categories such as patient & member engagement, eligibility & claims, care operations & management, payment & reimbursement, and analytics & insights. Notable offerings include the prior authorization inquiry API, which enables payers to check a patient's prior authorization status in real-time, and SmartPay Plus, an e-cashiering payment platform that simplifies patient payments and streamlines the collection process. Additionally, Optum Advisory Technology Services provides expert support for digital transformation initiatives, offering system selection, procurement, implementation, and AI tools. It also features partnerships with trusted resellers, such as ServiceNow, to offer cutting-edge healthcare solutions. -
19
Truepill
Truepill
Truepill is a digital healthcare platform that enables organizations to build, manage, and scale pharmacy experiences through a suite of services and APIs. Our virtual pharmacy provides a configurable, white-labeled digital interface for prescription management, offering patients a seamless ecommerce experience with features like flexible payment options (cash, insurance, FSA/HSA, savings cards), home delivery, and real-time notifications for orders, deliveries, and refills. Truepill operates a nationwide network of URAC-accredited mail-order and specialty pharmacies, ensuring safe dispensing and shipping of medications across all 50 states. It supports custom packaging to enhance brand presence and offers broad insurance coverage, being in-network for the majority of commercially insured patients. Additionally, Truepill provides patient services, including 24/7 pharmacist support, prescription intake, transfer and renewal services, benefits and access support, insurance, etc. -
20
Isabel Healthcare
Isabel Healthcare
Isabel Healthcare offers AI-powered tools designed to enhance diagnostic accuracy and patient triage. The Isabel DDx Companion assists healthcare professionals by generating a differential diagnosis list from minimal clinical features in under a minute, covering over 10,000 conditions across all ages and specialties. The Isabel Self-Triage tool enables patients to receive triage advice by answering just 11 standard questions, achieving a 97% completion rate, and directing them to appropriate care venues. Both tools are supported by a comprehensive API for seamless integration into various platforms and workflows. -
21
PYCAD
PYCAD
PYCAD is a company specializing in AI solutions for medical imaging and computer vision. With over three years of experience in medical imaging and six years in computer vision, PYCAD offers services including data handling, model training, and model deployment. They assist clients in preparing data through annotation guidance, anonymization, and format handling, ensuring readiness for analysis and model training. PYCAD selects optimal model configurations tailored to specific tasks, managing the entire training process to deliver high-performance models. Additionally, they deploy trained models as APIs on platforms like GCP or AWS and create MVP UIs for seamless integration. The company has successfully completed over 10 projects since its founding in 2023, collaborating closely with clients to understand their needs and provide impactful solutions. PYCAD emphasizes data privacy and security, ensuring all data remains confidential and is deleted post-project completion. -
22
HL7 FHIR
HL7
FHIR is described as a 'RESTful' specification based on common industry-level use of the term REST. In practice, FHIR only supports Level 2 of the REST Maturity Model as part of the core specification, though full Level 3 conformance is possible through the use of extensions. Because FHIR is a standard, it relies on the standardization of resource structures and interfaces. This may be considered a violation of REST principles but is key to ensuring consistent interoperability across diverse systems. For each "resource type," the same set of interactions is defined, which can be used to manage the resources in a highly granular fashion. Applications claiming conformance to this framework claim to be conformant to "RESTful FHIR." Note that in this RESTful framework, transactions are performed directly on the server resource using an HTTP request/response. -
23
Consensus Harmony
Consensus Cloud Solutions
Access numerous endpoints, securely and simply with one API connectivity and avoid developing one-offs to disparate healthcare systems. Bridge the gap between multiple systems, standards, and data sets, using a single point of access for developing interoperability. Consensus Harmony includes universal healthcare APIs, cloud fax APIs, electronic signature APIs, and connectivity to multiple participating EHR partners and other leading industry cloud marketplaces. Flexible interoperability options to programmatically integrate digital faxing, secure messaging, patient record requests, e-signatures, and more into key workflows like payments, prior authorizations, and referrals. Extend your capabilities and access new information networks by partnering and leveraging community providers already integrated. Don’t limit the network you communicate with, leave the modality of communication up to our technology. -
24
Change Healthcare
Change Healthcare
Our platform builds consistency, continuity, and scalability across our integrated portfolio, enabling our customers to improve operational efficiency, decision-making, and patient outcomes—and enabling innovation as our healthcare system evolves. With innovative data and analytics, plus patient engagement and collaboration tools, the Change Healthcare platform helps providers and payers optimize workflows, access the right information at the right time, and support the safest and most clinically appropriate care. We enable access to data and facilitate the interoperability of data between sources to support CMS patient access and interoperability rules, as well as enable real-time access to clinical documents to help better manage risk adjustment, improve HEDIS scores, and support accurate payments with faster adjudication.
Healthcare APIs Guide
Healthcare APIs, or application programming interfaces, play a vital role in modernizing and streamlining the healthcare industry. These interfaces allow different software systems to communicate and share data securely, enabling better coordination among healthcare providers, payers, and patients. By facilitating real-time access to electronic health records (EHRs), medical imaging, lab results, and other critical data, APIs help improve the quality of care and operational efficiency across healthcare ecosystems.
One of the most significant benefits of healthcare APIs is their ability to support interoperability. Historically, healthcare data has been siloed within disparate systems, making it difficult for providers to access comprehensive patient information. APIs bridge these gaps by enabling data exchange between systems such as hospital information systems, pharmacy platforms, and wearable health devices. This seamless flow of information can lead to more accurate diagnoses, timely treatments, and a better overall patient experience.
In addition to improving care delivery, healthcare APIs support innovation by giving developers the tools to build new health applications and services. These can range from patient-facing mobile apps that track wellness metrics to AI-powered decision support systems for clinicians. Regulatory initiatives like the 21st Century Cures Act have also driven the adoption of open APIs, promoting transparency and giving patients greater control over their health data. As the healthcare industry continues to embrace digital transformation, APIs will remain a foundational component in building connected, patient-centered care models.
Features Offered by Healthcare APIs
- Electronic Health Record (EHR) Integration: Healthcare APIs facilitate integration with EHR systems, allowing applications to access, update, and manage patient records in real-time. This ensures that patient data is consistent and up to date across all systems used by healthcare providers.
- Patient Access to Medical Records: Many APIs provide secure endpoints that allow patients to view their medical histories, lab results, medication lists, and visit summaries through mobile apps or patient portals.
- Appointment Scheduling and Management: APIs enable healthcare apps to offer functionalities such as booking, rescheduling, or canceling appointments. They also provide real-time availability of providers.
- Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring: APIs support video consultations, remote monitoring of patient vitals (e.g., heart rate, glucose levels), and integration with wearable devices.
- Clinical Decision Support: These APIs provide tools for evidence-based clinical decision-making, including drug interaction checkers, diagnostic support, and treatment guidelines.
- Claims and Billing Integration: Healthcare APIs connect with insurance systems to automate claim submission, eligibility checks, payment processing, and billing inquiries.
- Interoperability and Data Exchange: APIs enable data exchange between disparate systems using standardized protocols such as HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources).
- Prescription Management: These APIs enable electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), medication reconciliation, and pharmacy integration.
- Identity and Access Management: Healthcare APIs provide authentication and authorization mechanisms to protect sensitive data, often using OAuth2 and OpenID Connect protocols.
- Population Health Analytics: APIs enable the aggregation and analysis of health data from various sources to identify trends, monitor outbreaks, and assess community health.
- Consent Management: These APIs manage patient consents for data sharing and treatment, allowing healthcare providers to capture, store, and retrieve consent records.
- Integration with Health Apps and Wearables: APIs provide the ability to connect with third-party health applications and consumer devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches.
- Laboratory Information System (LIS) Integration: These APIs facilitate communication between EHRs and lab systems, enabling order entry, result reporting, and data synchronization.
- Imaging and Diagnostics Access: APIs provide secure access to radiology images and reports (e.g., via DICOM and PACS systems) for both providers and patients.
- Audit Logging and Compliance Reporting: APIs often include features for logging access and transactions, which are essential for audits and compliance tracking.
- Alerts and Notifications: APIs can trigger alerts for various events such as abnormal lab results, medication refills, missed appointments, or emergency conditions.
- Custom Workflow Automation: Healthcare APIs can be used to automate custom workflows, such as patient intake processes, referral management, or discharge planning.
- Health Information Exchange (HIE) Integration: APIs support integration with regional or national health information exchanges, allowing broader data sharing among different health systems.
- Quality and Performance Metrics: APIs allow providers and organizations to track performance indicators such as patient outcomes, treatment effectiveness, and service quality.
- Genomic and Precision Medicine Support: Advanced healthcare APIs support access to genomic data and tools that tailor treatments based on individual genetic profiles.
Different Types of Healthcare APIs
- Patient Data APIs (Electronic Health Records - EHR APIs): Patient Data APIs are used to facilitate the exchange of clinical information across various healthcare systems. These APIs enable access to electronic health records (EHRs), allowing healthcare providers to retrieve, update, and share data such as medications, allergies, lab results, immunization history, and clinical notes. They play a vital role in maintaining continuity of care by ensuring that accurate and up-to-date information follows the patient from primary care physicians to specialists, hospitals, and beyond. Additionally, they empower patients by providing them with access to their own medical records through secure apps and portals.
- Appointment Scheduling APIs: Appointment Scheduling APIs streamline the process of booking, modifying, or canceling medical appointments. They allow users to search for available time slots with healthcare providers, schedule visits, and receive confirmations or reminders. These APIs are often integrated into patient portals, mobile applications, and provider systems to enhance accessibility and reduce no-shows. They not only improve the patient experience but also optimize provider workflows and ensure efficient time management within healthcare practices.
- Telehealth APIs: Telehealth APIs are designed to support virtual healthcare services, enabling secure video consultations and digital communication between patients and providers. These APIs manage appointment scheduling, initiate video calls, and integrate session details into the patient’s health records. With the growing demand for remote care, telehealth APIs help extend healthcare access to patients in rural or underserved areas, support ongoing care for chronic conditions, and reduce the need for in-person visits when not medically necessary. They also ensure that telemedicine services are compliant with healthcare regulations and privacy standards.
- Claims and Billing APIs: Claims and Billing APIs simplify the complex process of submitting and managing insurance claims and medical billing. These APIs facilitate real-time insurance verification, claim submissions to payers, tracking of claim status, and processing of explanations of benefits (EOBs). They reduce administrative overhead by automating tedious processes, minimize billing errors, and accelerate reimbursements to healthcare providers. Additionally, they help ensure that patients are informed about their insurance coverage and financial responsibilities before receiving care.
- Pharmacy APIs: Pharmacy APIs focus on medication management and prescription processing. They support electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), provide drug interaction checks, enable refill requests, and offer up-to-date information on medication availability and costs. By connecting prescribers with pharmacies, these APIs help improve the accuracy and efficiency of medication dispensing, reduce prescription errors, and enhance patient safety. They also contribute to better adherence by making it easier for patients to get their medications filled and monitored in a timely manner.
- Population Health and Analytics APIs: Population Health and Analytics APIs are used to aggregate and analyze health data across patient populations. These APIs help identify patterns and trends, generate risk scores, and support predictive modeling. They are essential tools in value-based care, where providers are incentivized to improve health outcomes rather than deliver a high volume of services. By leveraging data from various sources, these APIs enable healthcare organizations to proactively manage chronic conditions, target at-risk groups, and monitor the effectiveness of interventions at a community level.
- Wearables and Remote Monitoring APIs: Wearables and Remote Monitoring APIs connect personal health devices—such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, glucose monitors, and blood pressure cuffs—with healthcare systems. These APIs allow continuous data collection and real-time transmission of vital health metrics to providers. This facilitates proactive monitoring of chronic conditions, supports remote patient management, and allows for early detection of health issues. They also promote preventive care and patient engagement by helping individuals track their health and wellness metrics over time.
- Public Health and Reporting APIs: Public Health and Reporting APIs are used to transmit health data to public health agencies and regulatory bodies. These APIs facilitate the reporting of communicable diseases, immunizations, adverse events, and syndromic surveillance data. They play a critical role during health crises, such as pandemics, by enabling timely data sharing that supports outbreak tracking and resource allocation. Compliance with public health reporting requirements is also streamlined, ensuring that healthcare organizations meet legal and regulatory standards.
- Interoperability and Standards-Based APIs (e.g., FHIR APIs): Interoperability APIs, particularly those based on healthcare standards like HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), enable seamless data exchange between different health IT systems. These APIs define standardized formats and structures for sharing data about patients, medications, encounters, observations, and more. They are essential in promoting connected care, ensuring that healthcare data can move freely and securely between providers, payers, and patients, regardless of the underlying technology platforms. They also support innovation by allowing developers to build applications that can work across a wide variety of systems.
- Consent and Identity Management APIs: Consent and Identity Management APIs help manage patient authentication, authorization, and consent preferences across digital health platforms. These APIs verify patient identities, handle secure logins, and store electronic consent records that determine who can access specific health information. They support compliance with privacy laws such as HIPAA by ensuring that sensitive data is only shared with appropriate parties. Furthermore, they provide audit trails and access logs to ensure transparency and trust in data usage.
- Clinical Decision Support (CDS) APIs: Clinical Decision Support APIs provide real-time, evidence-based recommendations to healthcare providers during the clinical workflow. These APIs analyze patient data to generate alerts about potential issues such as drug interactions, abnormal lab results, or guideline-based care gaps. They can also recommend diagnostic tests, treatment options, and clinical pathways. By integrating with EHRs and other clinical systems, CDS APIs enhance decision-making, reduce medical errors, and support personalized care strategies.
- Imaging and Diagnostic APIs: Imaging and Diagnostic APIs enable the access, sharing, and visualization of diagnostic images such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. These APIs often use standards like DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) to ensure interoperability between radiology systems. They allow providers to view and interpret images remotely, integrate diagnostic results into patient records, and collaborate more effectively with specialists. This helps improve diagnostic accuracy, reduce redundant testing, and expedite patient care.
Advantages Provided by Healthcare APIs
- Improved Interoperability Between Systems: APIs enable different healthcare systems, such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Laboratory Information Systems (LIS), and Pharmacy Management Systems, to communicate and exchange data efficiently. This improved interoperability ensures that patient data flows freely and accurately between systems, reducing duplication and enabling coordinated care.
- Real-Time Data Access and Exchange: With APIs, healthcare providers can access patient information in real time. This is crucial in emergency situations where timely data, such as allergies, current medications, and medical history, can mean the difference between life and death. Real-time access also improves diagnosis and treatment accuracy.
- Enhanced Patient Engagement: APIs allow patients to access their health information through mobile apps, portals, and other digital tools. This transparency encourages patients to be more involved in their care, promotes self-management of chronic conditions, and helps patients adhere to treatment plans. Increased engagement often leads to better health outcomes.
- Streamlined Administrative Processes: APIs can automate and simplify many administrative functions, such as appointment scheduling, insurance verification, billing, and claims processing. This reduces manual entry, minimizes human error, and allows healthcare staff to focus more on patient care rather than paperwork.
- Facilitated Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring: APIs are essential for the integration of telemedicine platforms and remote patient monitoring systems with existing healthcare infrastructure. This connectivity enables healthcare providers to track patient vitals, receive alerts, and communicate with patients remotely, thereby expanding access to care and reducing the need for in-person visits.
- Accelerated Innovation and Customization: APIs provide a foundation upon which developers can build new healthcare apps and services. This fosters innovation, allowing healthcare organizations to adopt or develop tools tailored to their specific needs, such as custom dashboards for population health or AI-powered diagnostic tools.
- Improved Data Accuracy and Consistency: When data is transferred via APIs, it is typically done in a standardized format, such as HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources). Standardization reduces inconsistencies and ensures that data is interpreted correctly across systems, leading to more reliable medical records and analytics.
- Support for Value-Based Care Models: APIs enable the aggregation and analysis of data needed for value-based care, which focuses on patient outcomes rather than volume of services. By making it easier to collect and share quality metrics, APIs help providers track performance, identify care gaps, and implement improvement strategies.
- Facilitated Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: APIs help healthcare organizations comply with regulations such as the 21st Century Cures Act, which mandates data sharing and patient access to electronic health information. By enabling structured data exchange, APIs make it easier to meet these compliance requirements without overwhelming IT departments.
- Enhanced Population Health Management: Through APIs, healthcare providers can aggregate and analyze data from multiple sources to gain insights into population health trends. This allows for better tracking of disease outbreaks, identification of at-risk populations, and proactive management of chronic conditions on a community or national level.
- Scalability and Flexibility for IT Infrastructure: APIs allow healthcare organizations to scale their digital ecosystems more easily by integrating new tools and systems without completely overhauling existing infrastructure. This modularity provides flexibility to grow and adapt in response to changing needs and technologies.
- Reduced Costs Over Time: While implementing APIs may require an initial investment, they can significantly reduce costs in the long term by improving efficiency, reducing duplication of services, decreasing administrative workload, and minimizing errors that can lead to costly legal and medical consequences.
- Empowerment of Third-Party Developers and Partnerships: Publicly available APIs allow third-party developers to create apps and tools that integrate directly with healthcare systems. This opens the door to partnerships, accelerates technological advancement, and brings innovative solutions to market more quickly.
- Improved Decision Support for Clinicians: APIs can feed data into Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), which provide real-time alerts, reminders, and evidence-based recommendations to clinicians. This support can lead to more accurate diagnoses, optimized treatment plans, and improved patient safety.
- Integration with Wearables and Health Apps: Modern APIs can connect with consumer health devices such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, and mobile health applications. This allows for continuous health monitoring, early detection of issues, and integration of lifestyle data into clinical decision-making.
Types of Users That Use Healthcare APIs
- Healthcare Providers (Doctors, Nurses, Clinical Staff): Healthcare providers are the primary users of healthcare APIs in clinical settings. They rely on APIs to access and update Electronic Health Records (EHRs), retrieve patient histories, view lab and imaging results, and manage prescriptions. APIs allow real-time access to critical patient information, which helps providers make timely, informed decisions during care delivery. They also facilitate smoother communication across departments and between healthcare facilities, improving continuity of care and minimizing redundant testing or treatment delays.
- Health IT Developers and Software Engineers: Developers and software engineers build and maintain digital healthcare applications and systems, such as EHRs, mobile health apps, and telemedicine platforms. They use healthcare APIs to integrate various data sources, ensure compliance with data standards like HL7 or FHIR, and create seamless user experiences for both providers and patients. These users rely on API documentation and sandbox environments for testing and development, and they play a crucial role in ensuring the security, scalability, and reliability of digital health infrastructure.
- Patients and Health Consumers: Patients use healthcare APIs indirectly through patient portals, mobile apps, and wearable devices that connect to health platforms. APIs empower patients by giving them easier access to their health records, lab results, appointment scheduling, medication tracking, and more. As consumer-centric healthcare grows, APIs enable patients to securely download or share their health data across providers or apps, increasing transparency, encouraging self-care, and supporting personalized health management.
- Payers (Insurance Companies and Health Plans): Payers, including health insurance companies and plan administrators, use healthcare APIs to streamline administrative processes like eligibility verification, claims submission, and prior authorization. APIs also facilitate real-time communication with providers to assess treatment coverage and automate complex billing workflows. Additionally, payers use APIs to deliver cost transparency tools to patients, helping them understand benefits and out-of-pocket expenses before undergoing procedures or filling prescriptions.
- Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs): Pharmacies use APIs to process electronic prescriptions (ePrescriptions), validate insurance coverage, and access medication histories to ensure safe dispensing. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) leverage APIs to manage drug formularies, coordinate insurance benefits, and verify real-time medication costs. APIs also support tools like Real-Time Prescription Benefit (RTPB) checks, allowing pharmacists and patients to explore cost-effective medication alternatives at the point of care.
- Public Health Agencies and Researchers: Public health agencies and researchers utilize healthcare APIs to collect and analyze large datasets from hospitals, labs, and clinics for population health studies, disease surveillance, and policy development. APIs enable the real-time transmission of health data, which supports quicker responses to outbreaks, identification of health trends, and more informed public health decision-making. These users may also rely on APIs to submit required data to government health registries or reporting systems.
- Health Information Exchanges (HIEs): Health Information Exchanges act as central data-sharing platforms, allowing different healthcare organizations to securely access and share patient health data. APIs are foundational to HIE operations, enabling real-time querying and transfer of medical records, lab reports, and encounter summaries across disparate systems. By using APIs, HIEs help reduce information silos, eliminate duplicate testing, and improve care coordination, especially for patients seeing multiple providers or receiving care across different locations.
- Medical Device Manufacturers and IoT Companies: Manufacturers of medical devices and health-focused Internet of Things (IoT) solutions use APIs to integrate device-generated data into EHRs, health apps, or cloud platforms. These include devices like heart rate monitors, glucose meters, smart inhalers, and fitness trackers. APIs enable the seamless transmission of real-time health data for remote monitoring, alert generation, and long-term health trend analysis. They also support functions like device configuration, firmware updates, and diagnostics.
- Telehealth and Virtual Care Providers: Telemedicine platforms use healthcare APIs to enable virtual consultations, manage electronic records, verify patient identities, and process billing. APIs integrate various services, including video conferencing, remote monitoring tools, and digital prescription services, to create a cohesive virtual care experience. They also allow for seamless communication with EHR systems, ensuring that remote encounters are accurately documented and shared with the patient’s primary care team.
- Clinical Trial Sponsors and CROs (Contract Research Organizations): Sponsors of clinical trials, including pharmaceutical companies and CROs, use healthcare APIs to identify eligible participants, manage electronic consent, and gather data directly from EHRs or wearable devices. APIs facilitate the integration of trial data into centralized research platforms, support regulatory submissions, and enable real-time monitoring of trial progress. This helps improve participant engagement, reduce administrative overhead, and accelerate the pace of medical research and drug development.
- Regulatory and Compliance Organizations: Organizations like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) interact with healthcare APIs to evaluate system compliance, data security, and interoperability. These agencies oversee the implementation of standards like FHIR to ensure consistent API behavior across systems. They also use APIs to support regulatory reporting, patient data access mandates, and enforcement of privacy laws like HIPAA.
- Third-party App Developers and Startups: Entrepreneurs and tech startups developing consumer or provider-focused health apps rely on healthcare APIs to access patient data, offer integrations with other health tools, and enhance user experiences. Whether they’re building tools for chronic disease management, fitness tracking, mental health, or diet planning, these developers depend on APIs to securely interact with clinical systems, wearable devices, and health databases. APIs allow them to innovate quickly and meet user needs in a fast-evolving healthcare landscape.
- Employers and Wellness Program Coordinators: Organizations that offer health and wellness programs to their employees use APIs to track participation, integrate biometric screening results, and manage incentives. APIs help connect data from wearable devices, third-party wellness apps, and health risk assessments into unified dashboards. Employers can then analyze workforce health trends, develop targeted health interventions, and measure the impact of wellness initiatives on employee productivity and healthcare costs.
How Much Do Healthcare APIs Cost?
The cost of healthcare APIs can vary widely depending on several factors, including the type of data being accessed, the complexity of integration, usage volume, and the level of support required. Some APIs are available for free or offer limited access at no cost, especially for development or testing purposes. However, more advanced or enterprise-level APIs that provide access to comprehensive datasets—such as electronic health records (EHRs), insurance claims, or real-time clinical data—often come with subscription fees, which can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per month. These fees typically scale based on the number of API calls, users, or connected systems.
In addition to base pricing, there may be additional costs for implementation, customization, or compliance-related services. Because healthcare is a highly regulated industry, APIs must meet stringent standards for security and privacy, such as HIPAA compliance. This can increase development and maintenance costs. Organizations may also incur indirect costs such as legal reviews, ongoing monitoring, and data governance. As a result, it's important for healthcare providers, insurers, and developers to carefully evaluate their needs and budget before committing to a healthcare API solution.
Types of Software That Healthcare APIs Integrate With
A wide range of software applications can integrate with healthcare APIs, depending on their purpose and functionality. Electronic health record (EHR) systems are among the most common types, as they need to access and share patient data across different healthcare providers. These integrations allow for smoother data exchange, real-time updates, and better coordination of care. Practice management software also uses healthcare APIs to streamline administrative tasks like scheduling, billing, and insurance verification.
Mobile health apps often connect to healthcare APIs to pull in data such as lab results, medication histories, or fitness tracking information, giving patients more control over their health information. Telehealth platforms rely on APIs to access patient records, update treatment notes, and integrate with other systems like billing or electronic prescribing tools. Pharmacy systems use them to check for drug interactions, submit electronic prescriptions, and validate insurance coverage in real time.
Health information exchanges (HIEs), which enable secure data sharing across organizations, are built on robust API integrations to support interoperability. Even analytics platforms and population health management tools depend on APIs to pull clinical and operational data for reporting, predictive modeling, and care optimization. Overall, any software that interacts with patient data, provider workflows, or administrative functions in healthcare can benefit from healthcare API integration.
What Are the Trends Relating to Healthcare APIs?
- Interoperability and Standardization: FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) has become the leading standard for healthcare APIs. It enables systems to exchange health data using modern web technologies and is strongly supported by U.S. health IT policy. Government mandates, especially under the 21st Century Cures Act, require healthcare organizations to make data available through standardized APIs. These rules are designed to prevent information blocking and give patients access to their health records.
- Patient Access and Engagement: APIs are powering a surge in patient-facing apps. These apps help users track medications, monitor conditions, and manage appointments directly from their smartphones. Personal Health Records (PHRs) are becoming easier to maintain thanks to APIs that combine data from different providers. This gives patients a complete view of their medical history in one place.
- Provider and Payer Collaboration: APIs support value-based care by enabling real-time data sharing between providers and payers. This improves care coordination, reduces costs, and enhances patient outcomes. Prior authorization is being automated with APIs, which speeds up approvals and reduces administrative work. This results in quicker access to care for patients.
- Security and Compliance: OAuth 2.0 and SMART on FHIR are widely used to ensure secure, standardized access to healthcare data. They protect patient privacy while enabling app integration. APIs must meet HIPAA compliance standards, using encryption, access controls, and audit logs to protect sensitive health information.
- Artificial Intelligence and Analytics: APIs help feed AI and analytics systems with real-time health data. This supports predictive modeling, population health insights, and clinical decision-making. APIs also power real-time alerts and dashboards. These tools notify clinicians immediately when critical health data changes, enabling faster interventions.
- Healthcare Ecosystem Expansion: Major EHR vendors now offer API marketplaces where developers can build apps that integrate with clinical systems. This accelerates digital health innovation. APIs reduce barriers for startups, allowing them to focus on specialized healthcare solutions without rebuilding core infrastructure from scratch.
- Data Aggregation and Longitudinal Records: APIs make it easier to build longitudinal patient records that span multiple providers. This helps doctors and patients understand long-term health trends. Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) rely on APIs to share data across organizations. This improves continuity of care and reduces duplication.
- Real-Time Data and Event-Driven Architecture: APIs using webhooks and event-driven models allow systems to react immediately to changes, such as new test results or appointment updates. Streaming data APIs support continuous monitoring, like glucose levels or vital signs. This is key for telehealth and remote patient care.
- Future and Emerging Trends: Decentralized data ownership is gaining attention. APIs may soon allow patients to store and share their health data through personal health wallets. Blockchain integration with APIs is being explored to create secure, auditable records of data access and changes, particularly in research settings.
How To Find the Right Healthcare API
Selecting the right healthcare APIs involves understanding both your technical requirements and the regulatory environment. Start by clearly identifying the problem you're trying to solve or the functionality you need. Whether it’s accessing patient records, enabling telehealth services, or integrating with electronic health records (EHRs), knowing your specific use case will help narrow down your options.
Next, evaluate the API's compliance with healthcare regulations such as HIPAA in the United States. Since healthcare data is highly sensitive, any API you use must ensure data privacy and security. Look for APIs that offer robust authentication methods, encryption standards, and clear documentation on how they handle protected health information (PHI).
Interoperability is another crucial factor. The API should work well with the systems you already use or plan to integrate with, like HL7, FHIR, or SMART on FHIR frameworks. Make sure the API supports industry standards to avoid compatibility issues and reduce development time.
Consider the quality and clarity of the documentation. Good documentation makes integration faster and helps your team troubleshoot issues more efficiently. You’ll also want to assess the support available—whether through developer forums, dedicated technical teams, or customer service—since responsive support can be a lifesaver during implementation.
Lastly, think about scalability and performance. The API should be capable of handling your current data needs while also being flexible enough to grow with your application. Check for rate limits, uptime guarantees, and any hidden costs that might come into play as your usage increases.
Choosing the right healthcare API is a mix of technical due diligence, regulatory awareness, and long-term strategic thinking. With careful planning and evaluation, you can find an API that fits your needs and supports your goals in delivering effective, secure healthcare solutions.
Use the comparison engine on this page to help you compare healthcare APIs by their features, prices, user reviews, and more.