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title SMART - Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about SMART

What is SMART?

SMART is a specification of a open source platform based on web standards for building substitutable apps on medical data systems such as electronic health records, personal health records, clinical data systems and health information exchanges. The SMART specification is designed to help solve the problems in both exposing medical data to apps and the creation of innovative substitutable apps for these systems.

The SMART platform defines four main components:

  1. A developer-friendly data model covering the most commonly used medical data elements such as problems, medications, labs, vital signs, encounters, and fulfillments. The data is meaningfully structured with references to relevant coding systems and related data is linked. For example, a given fulfillment references the related medicaion which references a specifc RxNorm code.

  2. A easy-to-use REST API to access the data models above

  3. A simple set of specifications based on widely used, off-the-shelf protocols for app registration, authenticaion, and authorization

  4. A set of software development tools and documentation including native client libraries for Javascript, Python, iOS, and Java (the SMART Framework) and a Reference EMR for testing referred to as the "SMART Reference Container".

What is a SMART Container?

The concrete implementations of the SMART Platform" either using the provided SMART Framework or built into an EHR system are called SMART Containers.

For example, our cloud-hosted reference EMR filled with sample patient data for convenient testing of SMART apps is our implementation of the SMART platform built with the SMART Framework and called the SMART Reference Container.

Several existing systems have been "SMART enabled" including the OpenVistA electronic medical record, the Indivo personal healh record, the i2b2 clinical data system, and the Mirth Results health information exchange system. More systems both academic and commercial are planning to become SMART enabled in the near future.

What is the SMART Reference Container?

The SMART Reference Container is our reference implementation of SMART. It is a self-contained sample EHR that fully implements the SMART specification. The reference container is useful for development and testing of SMART applications whithout the need to have access to a SMART-enabled hospital EHR. It also is intended to serve as an example of a SMART container that can be examined by container developers who are in the process of SMART-enabling their EHR.

How do I "install" SMART in my EHR?

Since SMART is a specification of a platform for medical apps and not a piece of software it can't be "installed" into a system. However, to aid in the adoption of the SMART platform, we've created the SMART Framework, which is a set of software libraries and tools to help you SMART enable your system.

To get started, see our container developers guide.

Is SMART a "standard"?

SMART is currently not overseen by a formal standards body.

Can I write data into my EHR through SMART?

As of SMART v0.6, the framework supports very limited write capabilities. Specifically, a SMART app can write clinical notes and store its preferences and annotations of a patient record as unstructured data. Most of the API calls in SMART are read-only.

How Do I Write Medical Apps With SMART?

Getting started creating amazing apps is easy! Start with our app developer's getting started guide.

Who is Using SMART?

See our list of SMART containers