A generic guide to reading patient data from Epic and Oracle Health with SMART App Launch: registration, discovery, EHR and standalone launch, PKCE, scopes and the differences you meet.
Epic and Oracle Health (formerly Cerner) both expose SMART on FHIR APIs, so one app can read patient data from either with the same flow: register the app in each vendor's developer program, discover the endpoints from .well-known/smart-configuration, launch with OAuth 2.0 and PKCE, and read US Core resources. This is a generic technical guide; Anpheros has no partnership with either vendor.
The flow is the same everywhere
Register the app in the vendor's developer program (Epic's developer site and Oracle Health's code console). You get a client ID per environment and choose the scopes and launch types.
Discover the authorization and token endpoints at https://<fhir-base>/.well-known/smart-configuration.
Launch.
- EHR launch: a clinician opens your app inside the EHR; you receive iss and launch and ask for the launch scope.
- Standalone launch: a patient (or clinician) starts from your app; ask for launch/patient to get the patient picked at sign-in.
Authorize with the authorization code flow and PKCE (code_challenge_method=S256). Public apps (mobile, browser) have no client secret; confidential apps authenticate with a secret or, preferably, a signed JWT (private_key_jwt).
Exchange the code for an access token. The response carries the launch context: patient, sometimes encounter, and id_token when you asked for openid fhirUser.
Read US Core resources with the token: Patient, Condition, Observation (labs, vital signs), MedicationRequest, AllergyIntolerance, Immunization, DocumentReference.
Scopes
SMART v1 scopes look like patient/Observation.read; SMART v2 uses patient/Observation.rs and allows granular filters such as patient/Observation.rs?category=laboratory. Many servers support both; read the scopes_supported list in the SMART configuration and ask only for what your feature needs. Add offline_access only if the person expects the connection to keep working.
Differences you will meet
Topic
What to check
Environments
Each vendor has a sandbox with test patients and separate production endpoints per health system
Endpoint directory
Production FHIR base URLs differ per organization; use the vendor's published endpoint lists
Scope versions
Whether SMART v1, v2 or both are accepted
Refresh tokens
Lifetime and whether offline_access is granted to patient apps
Writes
Read access is broad; writing back is limited and often needs a separate review
Rate limits and paging
Follow Bundle.linknext; do not assume one page holds everything
Keep what the patient brings, with consent
After the read, most apps need somewhere to keep the data, combine it with other sources and share it later. Anpheros Platform stores one FHIR R4 record per person:
write each resource with its source system and author as Provenance;
keep versions instead of overwriting, so corrections stay traceable;
let other apps or clinicians read only what the person approves, by scope and for a set time.
Anpheros is hosted in the EU. 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. Try the flow on the free sandbox with synthetic patients.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a separate integration for Epic and Oracle Health?
The protocol is the same (SMART App Launch, OAuth 2.0, FHIR R4, US Core), so most code is shared. You register separately with each vendor and each health system's production endpoint, and you handle small differences in scopes, refresh tokens and paging.
What is the difference between an EHR launch and a standalone launch?
In an EHR launch the app is opened from inside the EHR and receives the launch context; in a standalone launch the user starts in your app and picks or signs in as the patient at the authorization server.
Should my app use SMART v1 or v2 scopes?
Use what the server lists in scopes_supported. SMART v2 scopes (.rs, .cruds) are more precise and allow query filters; many servers still accept v1 scopes for compatibility.
Does Anpheros connect to Epic or Oracle Health for me?
No. Your app connects to each EHR with the patient's or clinician's authorization. Anpheros is where you can keep and share that data afterwards, with the person's consent.
