Suddenly It’s All About The APIs

It’s funny how topics wax and wane in our business … turns out I’ve got a number of events coming up where I’m on tap to discuss the emergence of “APIs” in Health and what it might mean for interoperability and adoption. The first of these is tomorrow at ITdotHealth at Harvard; great to follow-up the meeting that kicked off so much of the “Health Internet” movement back in 2009!

First let me say, hooray for all of the energy that folks are bringing to this new phase of healthcare technology. It’s fantastic that people are realizing that no single company/tool/app can do everything, and that we have to find ways to create composite, federated solutions. ePrescribing is the grand-daddy of this dynamic, and the work that Zac, Ken, Josh (and Ben!) have done with SMART is the natural next step. More investment and work and experiments are always a good thing, so AT&T, Aetna, etc. --- keep it up!

That said, we’ve been at the API game with HealthVault longer than most in the business, and I’ve talked in the past about why I returned to Microsoft to start the venture. This is a company that understands both the complexity of building API-driven ecosystems and has the need for patience and resources to bring them to critical mass.