Kaiser Permanente Launches Open Health API With Facility Info, Self-Tracking Data Coming Soon

Integrated health system Kaiser Permanente is launching an open API, called Interchange, that will enable developers to use publicly available information from Kaiser Permanente in their own apps. Initially, Kaiser Permanente will share data about the location, hours of operation and specialty information for the organization’s 37 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices. That location data formed the basis for the company’s first-ever mobile app, KP Locator.

Phil Fasano, executive vice president and chief information officer at Kaiser Permanente, emphasized during a short speech at Health Datapalooza in Washington, D.C. this week that KP has no plans to share their patient’s personal health information via the API.

In the future, the platform will make it easier for developers to pull in self-tracking data to Interchange. A logo in KP’s whitepaper about Interchange suggests activity trackers Fitbit and Jawbone, and gamified kids activity platform Zamzee, could be initial partners. That activity data will be shared back to Kaiser Permanente, according to the Interchange FAQ page.