any available APIs for EPIC EMR?

Question

I am trying to send and/or receive information from EPIC EMR. What is the best way to accomplish this? I am not aware of any APIs and I wonder if anyone can guide me to any API documentation or some other solution. Could an HL7 interface engine be a solution?

Answer 1

Background: I used to work at Epic, and now I help folks with these type of questions at Catalyze

For the most part, the key to gaining access to Epic documentation is to work with a hospital that is an Epic customer and to have them manage the process for you. Epic leaves it to its customers to broker that relationship; it also charges the hospital any pertinent licensing. So, the key is mostly to have a stand-alone product that gets your foot in the door with a hospital, then to work on an application.

As stated, from that point on most integration is HL7 based. As Mike mentions, you can use an interface engine like Mirth or Iguana. But, that may be overkill for a light transaction load. You could setup your own listener/response mechanism using a library like HAPI or this Ruby gem.