Google last week announced plans to acquire Apigee, an application programming interface management provider, for $625 million. This investment in APIs may indicate a renewed focus on digital health efforts stemming from Google.
The blog post announcing the proposed acquisition even mentioned digital health uses of APIs. "Walgreens, for example, uses Apigee to manage the APIs that enable an ecosystem of partners and developers building apps using Walgreens APIs, including…the Prescription API (enabling users to quickly order refills of prescriptions right from their mobile app)," reads the announcement.
Google says adding API solutions to its cloud will enable customers to support their businesses with quality digital interactions, and this move to adopting API standards is one the healthcare industry is embracing, albeit slowly, in its push toward interoperability, according to CIO. "The ONC has been pushing for more open standards to unlock the value of digitized medical records sitting in proprietary systems that can unleash innovation in healthcare and positively impact costs, quality and experience in healthcare," according to the report.
What's more, CIO reports Apigee has been involved in building APIs based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standards, which are standards being developed for healthcare data exchange between systems.
The CIO report suggests healthcare innovation is going to depend on how well applications can harness data, and harnessing that data will rely on a strong API environment.
"Google, which has struggled to gain traction in healthcare…may now find a new lease of life with a suite of tried and tested solutions for healthcare with the Apigee acquisition," according to CIO.
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