How to Build SMART on FHIR-Compatible Apps With Descope

Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (SMART on FHIR) is a framework that standardizes the integration of healthcare applications with electronic health record (EHR) systems by extending the OAuth 2.0 protocol. It provides a consistent approach to accessing patient data across different systems without requiring custom integrations. Implementing SMART on FHIR is complex due to its unique requirements, such as handling EHR-based authentication flows, granular scopes for data access, and patient and user context claims. This tutorial demonstrates building a SMART on FHIR-compatible application using Descope to simplify the authentication and consent processes. Descope manages user authentication and consent, ensuring compliance with SMART specifications while reducing development effort by delegating token issuance to the EHR. The tutorial includes a practical example of setting up a diabetes monitoring app that integrates with an EHR system to access patient data using the FHIR API, leveraging Descope's features to streamline the development process.