Do Business the FHIR way —with the FHIR Business Alliance (FHIRBall)

We are a group of companies who have been involved in FHIR since the outset. This means that open data and open standards are at the heart of what we do. 

[February 17, 2020 –  Orlando, Florida]  1upHealth, AEGIS, Firely, and Smile CDR announce a global strategic partnership in order to expand the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) market and raise awareness of FHIR.  FHIR is a new healthcare interoperability standard with wide adoption from the US Government, EHRs and other organizations for exchanging healthcare information electronically. The four industry-leading companies are teaming up to promote a more expedient transition to FHIR which offers considerable advantages over existing standards in healthcare.

This newly formed FHIR Business Alliance, “FHIRBall”, is a group of companies that build interoperable solutions based on FHIR. They are the early adopters of FHIR and share the values that underpin the FHIR community. “FHIR is driving change in health IT, which in turn is driving change in health care” states Sandy Vance from AEGIS. The FHIRBall focus for this year will be to collaborate on marketing, thus growing the market for FHIR products and services. Their first public appearance will be at HIMSS20 March 9-13 in Orlando, FL. The FHIRBall companies will share booth 8200-69, and speak in several panels. 

FHIR is driving change in healthcare by enabling true interoperability through standard, safe and efficient APIs. FHIRBall members have actively engaged in the proliferation of the FHIR standard and the core values below. The FHIR Business Alliance now joins forces to market the companies’ FHIR-based tools and solutions because they believe every health care organization and patient deserves the best that technology has to offer. Through each of the four businesses, the companies strive to propel the healthcare industry forward through the community-based approach of HL7 and the FHIR Foundation.

The FHIRBall members consider the FHIR principles as their core values. They work together to grow the market for FHIR products using a new approach to business, based on openness and collaboration. 1upHealth, AEGIS, Firely, and Smile CDR will cooperate on joint marketing, with the goal of demonstrating that a community-based approach is the way forward. They plan to work with HL7 and the FHIR Foundation to help the FHIR community grow and prosper.

“Multiple organizations are starting to embrace FHIR, and with FHIRBall, we are planning on expanding the scope to additional use cases across payers, research, and pharma,” said Ricky Sahu from 1upHealth. As part of FHIRBall, 1uphealth, AEGIS, Firely, and SmileCDR are committed to the business values of healthcare data belonging to health care organizations and the patients, and the use of open standards to use open APIs to access data. The alliance plans to additionally be an active contributor to the FHIR community and FHIR standard legislation, along with providing developers the needed tools to access the company’s products.

About 1upHealth:

As a leader in FHIR interoperability, 1upHealth focuses on bridging the gap between patient-centered data and provider needs, thus creating a platform for patients to aggregate and share medical data from external health systems and wearable devices with providers enabling improved healthcare outcomes and lower costs. 1upHealth is building the foundational API platform for healthcare application developers from health systems, health insurance payers, pharma, and digital health startups, with connectivity to over 10,000 health systems across the US. For more information email hello@1up.health or visit  https://1up.health.

About AEGIS:

AEGIS experts authored the FHIR Test Script Resource and have supported FHIR validation from the beginning. Touchstone by AEGIS is your easy-to-use platform that accelerates the development and deployment of interoperable and secure healthcare applications. The system provides a repeatable litmus test to decisively measure FHIR implementations and provide test-driven development support to health IT vendors around the globe. For more information email info@AEGIS.net or visit https://www.AEGIS.net

About Firely:

One of the founders of FHIR, Firely is deeply involved in building the FHIR standard and driving the FHIR community. True to their motto Making FHIR even simpler, Firely provides products, tools, and FHIR training to help implementers apply FHIR. Partnering with HL7 and the FHIR Foundation, Firely is the organizer of FHIR DevDays, the premier FHIR event in the world. For more information email info@fire.ly or visit https://fire.ly

About SmileCDR:

Smile CDR helps organizations like governments, regional health exchanges, researchers, health systems, providers, payers and app developers build connected health solutions by leveraging our products and core expertise in health data and HL7 FHIR. We make it easy for health organizations of all sizes to deliver interoperable applications quickly and enable #BetterGlobalHealth.  For more information email info@smilecdr.com or visit https://www.smilecdr.com