# A patient data platform for clinics and hospitals > What a clinic, hospital or laboratory gets from Anpheros Platform: patient-approved access to a standard FHIR R4 record, results written back, an audit the patient can read, EU hosting, and how to start with the sandbox. Source: https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/clinics-and-hospitals **Anpheros Platform gives a clinic, a hospital or a laboratory a way to read and write a patient's medical record, in standard HL7 FHIR R4, only with that patient's consent.** It does not replace the hospital's own system. It sits beside it: the patient holds one portable record, and each organisation that is allowed in adds to it and reads from it, on terms the patient can see and withdraw. ## What a clinic or hospital gets - **Access that the patient approves.** The clinic asks, the patient decides in their own app or by email, for a stated scope and a stated time. See [how a clinic requests access](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/clinic-access-request). - **A standard record to read.** Conditions, medications, allergies, laboratory results, documents and symptoms, as FHIR R4 resources, plus an International Patient Summary through `Patient/$summary`. See [the FHIR platform](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/fhir). - **A place to write results back.** With the patient's consent, a visit summary, a laboratory report or a document you create is added to the patient's record, labelled with who wrote it. A whole laboratory report can be loaded in one call; see the [lab connector](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/lab-connector). - **An audit the patient can read.** Every read and every write is logged, including reads made with your own key, and the patient sees the log. - **EU hosting by default.** A US data region and a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA) are available on request for production customers; production for US patient data starts only after the BAA is signed. See [security, privacy and data residency](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/security). ## What it is not Anpheros is not a hospital EHR, a scheduling system or a billing system. It holds the patient's own record and connects applications to it. A clinic keeps its own clinical system; Anpheros is the shared layer between that system, the patient and other organisations. See [how to integrate clinic systems with a FHIR backend](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/integrate-clinic-systems-fhir) for the technical side. ## Why a clinic would use it - **The patient arrives with a complete history.** Results from other clinics, home measurements, medications and symptoms are in one record the patient lets you read, so the first appointment does not start from zero. - **Results reach the patient without a portal of your own.** What you write, with the patient's consent, appears in the patient's own record and in the apps they use, so they do not need an account on your system to see it. - **Consent is built in, not bolted on.** You do not have to build consent screens, expiry or revocation; access that the patient withdraws stops on the next request. - **No lock-in for the patient or for you.** The record is open standard data. A patient who changes provider keeps the history, and an organisation that stops using the platform can export what it wrote. ## How a clinic starts 1. **Build against the sandbox.** It is free and has the same API as production, with synthetic patients only, so no patient data is involved. See [FHIR sandbox](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/fhir-sandbox) and [synthetic patient data](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/synthetic-patient-data). 2. **Run a pilot** with a small scope: one department, one result type, or one clinic location. The [FHIR proof of concept](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/fhir-proof-of-concept) guide lists what to demonstrate. 3. **Verify the organisation and sign the data processing agreement**, which opens production. For US clinics, a business associate agreement is available on request and must be signed before any US patient data goes live. 4. **Choose a plan.** The first production month is free. See [pricing](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/pricing): Starter is €99 a month for 2,500 patients, Growth €299 for 10,000 and Scale €799 for 50,000, excluding VAT. ## What to know about the current stage The platform is in private beta. It runs in a single zone without automatic failover and without a contractual availability guarantee, and it is not certified against SOC 2 or HITRUST. These are stated limits, not surprises; the full list is in [security, privacy and data residency](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/security). Partners start with synthetic data in a production project before loading real records. ## Frequently asked questions ### Can a clinic use Anpheros instead of its EHR? No. Anpheros is not an EHR. It holds the patient's own record and gives your systems a standard, consent-controlled way to read and write it. Your clinical system stays your system of record. ### Do patients need to have an Anpheros account for a clinic to use it? Yes, to read a record: the patient is the one who approves access, so they need an Anpheros account. The clinic's own system does not change. ### Which standards does the platform use? HL7 FHIR R4 for the record, OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and SMART on FHIR for access, OpenID CIBA for clinic requests, and the International Patient Summary for portable summaries. Laboratory results can be loaded from HL7 v2 and CSV. ### Where is patient data stored? In the European Union, in Google Cloud `europe-west4`, with documents encrypted under a customer-managed key. A US data region is available on request for US production customers, after a business associate agreement is signed. ### Can a hospital outside the EU use it? Yes, as long as the patient gives consent and the organisation signs the data processing agreement. Data stays in the EU region by default; a US region is available on request for US clinics under a business associate agreement. See [international patient data exchange](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/international-patient-data-exchange). ### How much does it cost for a clinic? The sandbox is free. Production starts at €99 a month for up to 2,500 patients, with the first month free. See [pricing](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/pricing). ## Related - [How a clinic requests access to a patient's record](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/clinic-access-request) - [Evaluating a medical data platform: questions for hospitals](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/hospital-due-diligence) - [International patient data exchange](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/international-patient-data-exchange) - [How to integrate clinic systems with a FHIR backend](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/integrate-clinic-systems-fhir) - [Use cases](https://developers.anpheros.com/guides/use-cases)