'Interoperability' is an oft-used word in the healthcare landscape these days, and most often associated with disparate or legacy EMR systems. Now one company is now applying that term to the fast-growing medical app environment.
Apigee, based in Palo Alto, Calif., last week unveiled the Apigee API Exchange, which it touts as the first API (application programming interface) exchange platform to be able to power app ecosystems in any industry.
According to David Andrzejek, Apigee’s API Exchange Initiative Leader, healthcare data is fragmented from hospital to hospital and clinic to clinic, and IT departments haven’t had enough financial incentive to create apps that can connect those silos. The API Exchange, he said, will allow developers to write one app that will be effective across multiple hospitals and clinics.
Andrzejek said the API Exchange, which was recently launched in the telecommunications industry through the GSMA (an Apigee partner), should help to accelerate the interest in healthcare app development and spur innovation.
"APIs are the 'nervous system' of our new digital world," said Chet Kapoor, the company's CEO, in a recent press release. "Being able to share services and data through interoperable APIs is crucial to establishing modern, digital ecosystems in any industry. This is especially true in industries where competition or regulation has created fragmentation, such as in telecommunications, healthcare or travel. The API Exchange will let consumers use apps and APIs seamlessly across disparate businesses within an industry, similar to roaming on mobile phones."
Dilshad Simons, Apigee's vice president of marketing, said the API Exchange could be used to make electronic health records interoperable if all of the EHR users are “plugged in” to the same API exchange.
In his Feb. 14 blog titled "Is HIT interoperability in the nature of healthcare?," Edmund Billings, MD, chief medical officer for Medsphere Systems, argued that APIs could be used to make today’s EHR interoperability problems obsolete. However, he said, the market for EHR vendors is a proprietary one, not lending itself toward open APIs.
