This page is part of the Smart App Launch Implementation Guide (v2.2.0: STU 2.2) based on FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) R4. This is the current published version. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions
The brands below are fabricated for the purpose of these examples.
Let’s begin by considering a national lab with many locations nationwide.
The configuration below establishes a single top-level Organization (applying the UserAccessBrand
profile) with a potentially long list of ExampleLabs addresses. In this configuration there’s a single Organization associated with a single portal and endpoint. The organization lists several aliases and addresses.
(An alternative choice for ExampleLabs would be to create an Organization for each state as a “sub-brand” with its own name, logo, and addresses. This is a decision that ExampleLabs can make based on how they wish to appear in patient-facing apps.)
Based on this configuration, a patient app might display the following cards to a user:
ExampleLabs (examplelabs.com)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
ExampleLabs Patient™ portal | ▢ Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 1 mile (Madison)
The FHIR server’s .well-known/smart-configuration
file would include a link like
"userAccessBrands": "https://labs.example.com/branding.json"
And the hosted User Access Brands Bundle file would look like:
Next, let’s look at a Regional health system (“ExampleHealth”) that has:
The configuration below establishes a single Organization for ExampleHealth, with a single portal associated with two FHIR endpoints (one R2, one R4). There are also Organizations for the affiliated providers, each indicating a partOf
relationship with ExampleHealth.
Based on this configuration, a patient app might display the following cards to a user:
ExampleHealth (examplehealth.org)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
MyExampleHospital | ▢ Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 13 miles (Madison)
ExampleHealth Physicians of Madison (ehpmadison.com)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
MyExampleHospital | ▢ Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 1 mile (Madison)
ExampleHealth Community Hospital (ehchospital.org)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
MyExampleHospital | ▢ Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 120 miles (Lake City)
Now let’s look at a more complex (but still surprisingly common) scenario where a care facility (“ExampleHospital”) has two patient portals offered by different EHR vendors and split by audience:
The configuration below establishes a single Organization for ExampleHospital, with a portal for pediatrics and a portal for adult care, each associated with a distinct endpoint.
Based on this configuration, a patient app might display the following cards to a user:
ExampleHospital (examplehospital.org)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
Patient Gateway | ▢Connect | ▢ View |
Pediatrics | ▢Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 1 miles (Napa)
(Note: In practice, if ExampleHospital uses two different EHR vendors to host these different portals, it’s possible that each vendor might publish only “their” portion of the content in an endpoint list. This is why it’s important to populate Organization.identifier
with consistent values, allowing apps to merge details from different publication sources into a single card for a streamlined selection UX. This guide recommends the use of normalized website URLs as common identifiers.)
Finally, let’s consider the scenario where a single patient portal is associated with two brands, neither one considered “primary”.
One possibility is simply to duplicate the Endpoints and Organizations and maintain entirely separate copies of their information, which apps can render into separate cards.
But if both organizations really do share an endpoint, the configuration below shows a more precise way to model the situation with one Endpoint and two Organizations that point to it.
Based on this configuration, a patient app might display the following cards to a user:
Brand1 (brand1.org)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
Brand1 Portal | ▢Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 1 miles (Napa)
Brand2 (brand2.org)
Source | API | Portal |
---|---|---|
Brand2 Portal | ▢Connect | ▢ View |
Nearest location: 13 miles (Sonoma)