Does anyone have any guidance for deciding when to set up an FHIR Server vs FHIR Client?
I’m working on a PACS-like tool for screening patients. I’m setting up this tool to one day integrate with multiple hostpial EHR systems, but I’m not sure where to start, specifically what the architecture should look like? Should I build an FHIR Server or Client, or both?
There are two main functions:
- To obtain a list of patients/encounters (from a hospital EHR) to put into the PACS tool, say appointments loaded at the beginning of the day. I also imagine a lot of related calls will be needed to handle all sorts of unusual cases. Things like patients showing up that weren’t pulled from the EHR (and verifying their information before uploading them).
When a patient comes in, users can submit an encounter to the tool with images taken during their visit. Grader users can come in an graded those images and create a 1 or more PDF report for the encounter. That leads to the 2nd function …
- To upload PDF reports to the hospital EHR with results/PDF reports for those encounters.
There is also historical data in the tool, so there will probably be corrections to old data that need to be synced - correcting the patient attached to an encounter, changing the grade on an encounter, etc.
I could see this working in 2 ways: The tool provides an FHIR Server where the hospital POSTs patients/encounters, or the tool builds an FHIR Client and connects to the hospital and pulls the patients/encounters. (And a reversed setup for sending results back to the hospital). How do I decide between building an FHIR Server and Client? Are there any rules of thumbs or principles to follow? Are there any questions I should be asking to determine which solution is the best fit?