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Show HN: Metriport – Open-source universal API for health data

47 points by celsinga 4y ago

Hey HN, we’re Colin and Dima, founders of Metriport (https://metriport.com/ https://metriport.com/). We help digital health companies access and manage user health and medical data, through an open-source and universal API. Today we're launching our open-source Health Devices API, which allows companies to gain access to their users’ health data from various wearables, RPM devices, and mHealth apps. You can check out the public Github repo here: https://github.com/metriport/metriport https://github.com/metriport/metriport For developers in the health data space, building integrations to various data sources is a huge pain, as it means wrangling different data formats, gaining access to the APIs in the first place, and ultimately spending precious developer resources building out data pipelines. We solve this pain for you through our open-source API, which is quick and easy to get started with (see: https://docs.metriport.com/getting-started/connect-quickstart https://docs.metriport.com/getting-started/connect-quickstar...). Out of the box, our Health Devices API supports integrations with Fitbit, Oura, Whoop, Withings, and Cronometer. We plan to add many more, including Garmin, Apple Health, and Google Fit in the near term. We work closely with our customers, so if there’s an integration you need, we’re more than happy to build it into our API. Because we’re open-source, you can also fork our code and build your own custom integrations. Getting started is simple. To start getting data from your users: 1) Create a developer account and generate an API key: https://dash.metriport.com/ https://dash.metriport.com/ 2) Set up our client on your server and initialize it with your API key: https://docs.metriport.com/getting-started/connect-quickstart#3-setup-the-metriport-client-on-your-server https://docs.metriport.com/getting-started/connect-quickstar... 3) Link the Metriport Connect widget into your app. This pre-built widget makes it easy for your users to connect all their data sources into your application. Now you’re ready to start accessing your users’ health data from their sources they’ve connected. We also offer a hosted SaaS solution with usage-based pricing, with no minimum platform fees. We believe this will open doors to a wide range of early stage companies and help drive innovation in the digital health industry. While we’re excited to be launching this product today and be the first open-source Health Devices API of its kind, we’re also really looking forward to sharing our Medical API with you in the coming months. You can find out more about that here: https://metriport.com/medical https://metriport.com/medical We can’t wait to see how this API is used and what it helps companies develop. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, and happy developing!

vcryan 4y ago
Call me crazy, but I'm one of those people who wants their medical information to be harder to get, not easier. I don't want any company to have it at all, including hospitals, etc. I'd prefer to come in with a thumb drive with medical information in a human readable format and that's it. Or you know, a folder with some papers in it.
- jdoss 4y ago
  I want it to be easier for me to get. I want software that will let me collect my own health data in a medium I can control (selfhosted or SaaS) were I can give grant and remove access to providers. This way they can into my system and look at my data but not pull it down into their systems.
- version_five 4y ago
  There are two issues though. One is security, the second is the actual protocol for sharing data. As an aside I don't really like to see products like this either, because I don't like the idea of normalizing sharing health information. Unfortunately, the data you share will almost exclusively be used against your interests. Your Fitbit for example, doctors aren't going to care, but insurance companies will find ways to use it against you, and advertisers will find ways to "target" you, etc. But in principle, having a patchwork of data exchange protocols isn't going to change any of that. We need strong regulation (I would argue most 3rd party uses should just be illegal) and good security, but might as well have a standard data exchange protocol on the off change there's a legitimate use for it
  - celsinga 4y ago
    We definitely understand your concerns here, and appreciate your thoughts in regards to sharing private health information. One thing to note is almost all of our customers so far are healthtech and healthcare companies that are primarily interested in improving the outcomes of their own patients. Wearables and consumer health data aside, access to medical records in the US is currently a huge problem, as many individuals still aren't able to access their own medical records, largely due to gatekeeping by hospitals and other medical providers who use proprietary systems. We wanted to go after this problem with the main goal of improving patient outcomes at the end of the day, and provide a legitimate alternative to the proprietary players that exist in the space who make access to data much more difficult and expensive than it should be.

47 points by celsinga 4y ago

vcryan 4y ago

Call me crazy, but I'm one of those people who wants their medical information to be harder to get, not easier. I don't want any company to have it at all, including hospitals, etc. I'd prefer to come in with a thumb drive with medical information in a human readable format and that's it. Or you know, a folder with some papers in it.

jdoss 4y ago
I want it to be easier for me to get. I want software that will let me collect my own health data in a medium I can control (selfhosted or SaaS) were I can give grant and remove access to providers. This way they can into my system and look at my data but not pull it down into their systems.
version_five 4y ago
There are two issues though. One is security, the second is the actual protocol for sharing data. As an aside I don't really like to see products like this either, because I don't like the idea of normalizing sharing health information. Unfortunately, the data you share will almost exclusively be used against your interests. Your Fitbit for example, doctors aren't going to care, but insurance companies will find ways to use it against you, and advertisers will find ways to "target" you, etc. But in principle, having a patchwork of data exchange protocols isn't going to change any of that. We need strong regulation (I would argue most 3rd party uses should just be illegal) and good security, but might as well have a standard data exchange protocol on the off change there's a legitimate use for it
- celsinga 4y ago
  We definitely understand your concerns here, and appreciate your thoughts in regards to sharing private health information. One thing to note is almost all of our customers so far are healthtech and healthcare companies that are primarily interested in improving the outcomes of their own patients. Wearables and consumer health data aside, access to medical records in the US is currently a huge problem, as many individuals still aren't able to access their own medical records, largely due to gatekeeping by hospitals and other medical providers who use proprietary systems. We wanted to go after this problem with the main goal of improving patient outcomes at the end of the day, and provide a legitimate alternative to the proprietary players that exist in the space who make access to data much more difficult and expensive than it should be.