The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently held their virtual FHIR Connectathon on July 18-20, 2023. GigaTECH had multiple representatives attending to gain FHIR knowledge and participate in cutting-edge testing. Team members attended various sessions throughout day one centered around FHIR basics and Implementation Guide (IG) usability. Day two’s highlights centered around the Bulk Claims Data introduction and workshops. Team members were split across the three claims data APIs to learn how to interact with these APIs and then run testing in the workshops. The third day was more general information sessions emphasizing the CARIN IGs and APIs.
Day One – FHIR and IG Basics
Day one was a great prep day for members gaining familiarity with FHIR. The FHIR 101 session walked through FHIR resource types and how they are constructed and then utilized HAPI FHIR servers to demonstrate the RESTful capabilities of these resources. We also looked at best practices for IG creation for effective communication among developers and users. Our team closed the day by attending the FHIR Testing and Tools session to learn more ways to test our own FHIR tools – SMART on FHIR applications and HAPI Servers utilizing Inferno and Touchstone testing resources.
Day Two – Bulk Data Claims Training Workshop
GigaTECH team members’ focus on day two was engaging with the Bulk Data Claims session and workshop. The Bulk Data Claims track included learning about the AB2D, BCDA, and DPC APIs and how developers can interact with these systems to provide end-user enhancements. These bulk data APIs allow for collecting and consuming claims data to support provider and payor applications. The individual workshops allowed our team to interact with the presenters and other participants in a more direct setting. Each member worked through the APIs with the presenters and through individual breakout rooms. These types of testing sessions are incredibly beneficial for all participants. Each workshop discovered some missing links in the documentation or in accessing the API tokens. Working through testing in a group setting like this allows for questions on the fly and real-time connectivity troubleshooting. As a team, we found these sessions to be very valuable!
Day Three – CARIN IG Updates
To wrap up our Connectathon experience, our team members attended various sessions throughout the day and particularly enjoyed the CARIN IG information sessions. As a company specializing in providing software integration with FHIR-enable products and resources, we are constantly looking for new products that we can bring to new clients. The CARIN IG for Digital Insurance Cards was a tool that stood out as potentially valuable to future opportunities. We enjoyed the idea of members having access to their health insurance cards in a mobile format and the integration with EHRs to facilitate the electronic transfer of this information. We envision being able to capture more information in this format and using the technology with linking to SMART on FHIR applications.
Connectathon Success
The recent CMS FHIR Connectathon was a great success for the organizers and GigaTECH as a participating company! We enjoyed listening to all of the session presenters and engaging on the leading edge of new API technology. Learning more about the overall landscape of FHIR and its capabilities was our main goal of the Connectathon and we achieved that and more. To learn more or watch the recorded sessions, check out the CMS FHIR Connectathon Confluence page for more information.
Looking to connect?
Be sure to check out our team’s presentation at the upcoming virtual HL7 FHIR Security Education Event!
GigaTECH Specializes In FHIR Applications
We specialize in working with FHIR and SMART on FHIR applications, creating functional, concise, and easy-to-use applications to accomplish tasks as small as triaging service tickets for customers all the way to importing bulk FHIR data from insurance databases for use by hospitals and clinicians as they seek a holistic view of integrated health information to support clinical decisions.
For a more in-depth look into how GigaTECH utilizes FHIR to address software concerns and problem-solving, check out one of our recent white papers.
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