The Case for Headless EHRs
For healthcare providers who have outgrown their existing EHR, a new solution is emerging: The Headless EHR.
Unlike traditional EHRs, which often bring high implementation costs, complex workflows, poor interoperability and extensive training requirements for clinicians, Headless EHRs provide an API-based infrastructure that can help clinical organizations finally close the gap between their ideal clinical workflows and the back-end operations that make patient-focused care possible.
How it works
While counterintuitive at first, Headless EHRs can help close that gap by actually decoupling the back-end infrastructure from the front end-interface, creating a modular design that delivers the flexibility, interoperability and efficiency that many mid-size providers are lacking from the solutions they can currently afford.
So for leaders looking for the best way to evolve how they manage patient data and clinical workflows, here’s our abbreviated case for going “headless,” what to expect from leading platforms, and why the Headless EHR could be the modular approach midsize healthcare providers have been searching for.
Synchronize care teams
Headless EHRs enable real-time data synchronization between different care teams. This promotes efficient communication and faster decision-making, leading to reduced wait times and more responsive care. As the system can adapt to user needs, patients can benefit from updates and new features more quickly, improving their overall satisfaction.
- Healthie - Flexible API - Out-of-the-box, Healthie’s API is designed to make it easy to go live quickly, with options for partial or full white-label custom branded solutions for easy flexibility that scales along with your practice.
Improve patient engagement
The API-first approach enables the integration of patient-centric tools such as personalized patient portals, telehealth solutions, and AI-driven virtual assistants. By offering a user-friendly interface that can be easily customized, providers can ensure patients have smoother access to scheduling, medical histories, and care plans.
- Medplum - Future-Ready Architecture: In addition to HIPAA and SOC2 compliance out of the box, anything built on Medplum inherits FHIR API access and which can be extended to partners, maximizing interoperability between care providers.
Grow with flexibility
Cost control is obviously a major consideration in EHR selection, particularly for midsized providers. The modular nature of headless EHRs means leaders can select only the components they need, minimizing upfront investments. The cloud-based infrastructure common to headless EHRs enables better scalability, and more manageable upgrades, as providers can roll out new features incrementally rather than undertaking costly system overhauls.
- Oystehr - Unified patient experiences: Because it’s directly integrated with their other service offerings, Oystehr’s API can support insurance validation, claims submissions, diagnostic test processing, telemed calls and SMS chat, all from one system.
Where to start
Like any new technology investment, the EHR 2.0 that’s right for your organization will only be as effective as it is properly thought through from the beginning. For leaders curious about what to do next, here’s where we would start:
- Define a focused target use case
- Audit your current system’s capabilities
- Identify and prioritize the patient interaction points that matter most
- Make informed decisions about the solutions that are right for your unique circumstances.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t go it alone.
At Foxbox, we're actively working with providers of all shapes and sizes to make the transition to “headless" as efficient, painless and future-focused as possible.
If you’d like to learn more about what we can help unlock within your organization, we’d love to chat.
