FHIR (pronounced 'fire') is a standard created by HL7 International for exchanging healthcare information electronically. It defines how clinical and administrative data — patient demographics, medications, lab results, appointments, insurance information — should be structured and transmitted between systems.
For healthcare practices, FHIR matters because it's becoming the required standard for healthcare interoperability. CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) mandates FHIR-based APIs for certain data exchange, and most major EHR vendors now offer FHIR endpoints.
From an automation perspective, FHIR APIs are the cleanest way to read and write healthcare data programmatically. When I build automations that pull patient data from an EHR, check insurance eligibility, or sync intake form data to a clinical system, FHIR APIs are often the preferred integration point.
The standard uses RESTful web services and JSON — modern web technologies that are straightforward to integrate with automation platforms and MCP servers. Resources (the 'R' in FHIR) are the building blocks: Patient, Encounter, Condition, Observation, Appointment, Coverage, and dozens more, each with a defined structure.
Not all EHRs have fully implemented FHIR yet, and implementation quality varies significantly. Some offer read-only access, others allow full CRUD operations. Understanding what your specific EHR's FHIR endpoint supports is a key part of scoping any healthcare automation project.