FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is the global industry standard for passing healthcare data between systems. It is free, open, and designed to be quick to learn and implement.

It is important that healthcare information can be shared quickly. This makes sure that the right information is available about each patient, so that providers can make the right decisions. Data sharing goes across organisations, and now includes mobile and cloud-based applications. 

FHIR are part of an international family of standards developed by Health Level-7 UK (HL7). The information models and APIs developed using this standard provide a means of sharing health and care information between providers and their systems no matter what setting care is delivered in.

To learn about the FHIR standard in general, see API technologies at NHS Digital.

To learn about our FHIR APIs and specific API standards, see the API catalogue filtered by FHIR.