Interoperability Layer: Instant OpenHIE

The Instant OpenHIE component serves as the interoperability backbone of the Connected Care Stack. It enables secure, standards-based data exchange across digital health applications—empowering coordinated, patient-centered care in low-resource settings.

Instant OpenHIE

Instant OpenHIE aims to allow Health Information Exchange components to be packaged up, deployed, operated and scaled via a simple CLI. Instant OpenHIE is a lightweight, modular, and portable implementation of the OpenHIE architecture. It allows digital health teams to deploy and operate interoperable Health Information Exchange (HIE) systems using a simple command-line interface (CLI).

Vision

The Instant OpenHIE based model aims to reduce the costs and skills required for software developers to deploy applications conforming to an OpenHIE architecture. This will enable quicker initial solution testing and demonstrations. It will also serve as a starting point for faster production implementation and customisation.

The Instant OpenHIE is a simple way for semi-technical persons to install and see a complex system working against a real-world use case. It will illustrate how interoperability can work to solve health challenges. It will also show how a national interoperability architecture could be created with open-source software and standards.

Deploying Interoperability

Interoperability is the foundation of coordinated care. Instant OpenHIE reduces the technical burden for health implementers by providing a simple, portable way to deploy health information exchange systems. Its design is:

  • Modular Packaging essential HIE components into reusable, production-ready containers. Its composable infrastructure allows you to deploy only what you need—tailor the architecture to national, regional, or program-level requirements.

  • Standardized Supporting standards-based integration using HL7 FHIR, ensuring consistent data formats and exchange protocols. This combined with the modular workflows enables reproducible and version-controlled deployments aligned with OpenHIE profiles and workflows.

  • Minimal Built for low-resource settings, it is designed to works in environments with limited connectivity and compute resources. The developer-friendly CLI allows you to launch interoperable systems quickly for testing, demonstrations, or production use, making it easy to test, customize, and scale digital care pathways in real-world contexts.

Older version:

  1. Demonstrable reference products - those that align with the OpenHIE Community’s vision for low resource contexts
  2. Rapid software development of mediators and point-of-service systems by making it possible to launch several applications easily so the developer can focus on their task
  3. Reproducible, version-controlled infrastructure for user-contributed tests of the OpenHIE Architecture profiles, workflows, and use cases.
  4. Production-ready containers and orchestratable components that are deployable in any context.
  5. Extensibility so that anyone may create Instant OpenHIE packages and plug them into the existing Instant OpenHIE functionality.