Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Google’s role in this project?
Google leads the design and development of the open source components and design
guidelines published as part of the Open Health Stack (OHS).
What is FHIR?
FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is the latest version of the
HL7 standard for building modern patient centered healthcare applications - see
getting started with
FHIR.
Why is Open Health Stack needed?
Open standards, such as FHIR,
are gaining a lot of attention and have continued to show momentum with
increased awareness and interest. For developers it can be challenging to adopt
new standards into solutions, especially for those building for
resource-constrained settings. Open Health Stack makes it easier for developers
to leverage the FHIR standard, easing its adoption into digital health
solutions. OHS components provide a rich set of features relevant to developers
that simplify transitioning to FHIR. For example, the Android FHIR SDK provides
bi-directional sync and storage to enable full offline capabilities for mobile
app developers.
What kinds of use cases does Open Health Stack support?
OHS has been designed to address the needs of developers building digital health
solutions for health workers who often operate in areas with poor connectivity.
Solutions built using OHS components can support any kind of healthcare program
and through our collaboration with the World Health Organization, OHS based
solutions are able to run the WHO Smart Guidelines content that makes evidence
based care easy to deploy. See our use cases and
stories to see how developers are using OHS
today.
Who is Google working with?
We're collaborating with the World Health Organization and a community of
developers on Open Health Stack. To date developers from Ona, IPRD Solutions,
IntelliSOFT Consulting, Argusoft, and a number of independent software engineers
have contributed to the code-base. It is an open source initiative and we
welcome contributions from developers who want to get involved. To get involved,
take a look at the GitHub repositories for individual components, or reach out
to us at hello-ohs@google.com.
Is Open Health Stack a managed service?
No. Open Health Stack provides a suite of building blocks that developers use to
build and implement their own solutions. These can be deployed in local
data-centers or on cloud providers.
What does Google do with the data?
Google does not receive, collect, store or process any data.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2024-07-23 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2024-07-23 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eOpen Health Stack (OHS) is an open-source initiative led by Google, providing tools and guidelines for building digital health solutions based on the FHIR standard.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eOHS simplifies FHIR adoption for developers, particularly in resource-constrained environments, offering features like offline capabilities through the Android FHIR SDK.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt supports a variety of healthcare programs and integrates with WHO Smart Guidelines for evidence-based care delivery.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle does not receive, collect, store, or process any data used within applications built using OHS.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eOHS is not a managed service; developers utilize its components to build and deploy their own solutions on preferred infrastructure.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google leads the design and development of open-source components and guidelines for the Open Health Stack (OHS), aimed at simplifying the adoption of the FHIR standard for digital health solutions. OHS is designed for developers, especially in resource-constrained settings, offering features like offline capabilities. Google collaborates with the World Health Organization and developers, encouraging open-source contributions. OHS is not a managed service; developers build and deploy their solutions, and Google does not handle any data.\n"],null,["# Frequently Asked Questions\n\nWhat is Google's role in this project?\n--------------------------------------\n\nGoogle leads the design and development of the open source components and design\nguidelines published as part of the Open Health Stack (OHS).\n\nWhat is FHIR?\n-------------\n\nFHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is the latest version of the\nHL7 standard for building modern patient centered healthcare applications - see\n[getting started with\nFHIR](/open-health-stack/resources/getting-started-with-fhir).\n\nWhy is Open Health Stack needed?\n--------------------------------\n\nOpen standards, such as [FHIR](https://www.hl7.org/fhir/index.html),\nare gaining a lot of attention and have continued to show momentum with\nincreased awareness and interest. For developers it can be challenging to adopt\nnew standards into solutions, especially for those building for\nresource-constrained settings. Open Health Stack makes it easier for developers\nto leverage the FHIR standard, easing its adoption into digital health\nsolutions. OHS components provide a rich set of features relevant to developers\nthat simplify transitioning to FHIR. For example, the Android FHIR SDK provides\nbi-directional sync and storage to enable full offline capabilities for mobile\napp developers.\n\nWhat kinds of use cases does Open Health Stack support?\n-------------------------------------------------------\n\nOHS has been designed to address the needs of developers building digital health\nsolutions for health workers who often operate in areas with poor connectivity.\nSolutions built using OHS components can support any kind of healthcare program\nand through our collaboration with the World Health Organization, OHS based\nsolutions are able to run the WHO Smart Guidelines content that makes evidence\nbased care easy to deploy. See our [use cases](/open-health-stack/use-cases) and\n[stories](/open-health-stack/stories) to see how developers are using OHS\ntoday.\n\nWho is Google working with?\n---------------------------\n\nWe're collaborating with the World Health Organization and a community of\ndevelopers on Open Health Stack. To date developers from Ona, IPRD Solutions,\nIntelliSOFT Consulting, Argusoft, and a number of independent software engineers\nhave contributed to the code-base. It is an open source initiative and we\nwelcome contributions from developers who want to get involved. To get involved,\ntake a look at the GitHub repositories for individual components, or reach out\nto us at [hello-ohs@google.com](mailto:hello-ohs@google.com).\n\nIs Open Health Stack a managed service?\n---------------------------------------\n\nNo. Open Health Stack provides a suite of building blocks that developers use to\nbuild and implement their own solutions. These can be deployed in local\ndata-centers or on cloud providers.\n\nWhat does Google do with the data?\n----------------------------------\n\nGoogle does not receive, collect, store or process any data."]]
