International Patient Access - Local Development build (v1.0.0-preview). See the Directory of published versions

Privacy and Consent

This specification depends on Smart App Launch which profiles an OAuth 2.0 authorization process, such that the user decides what access to grant to the application that they are using.

The application asks for the access it requires based on SMART App Launch Patient Scopes, either when the OAuth process is initiated, or when the application is registered. Other additional information may be collected during whatever registration process applies for the application.

Once the OAuth process is launched, the Authorization server considers rules such as:

• Applicable laws and regulations
• Institutional policies and agreements
• Existing Patient consent agreements
• Application access request

Once the server has determined what information the user has a right to access, then it asks the user to additionally choose what subset of that information they wish to share with the client application.

The Authorization server then returns a set of scopes to the application that describe what access the user has authorised. Clients need to be aware that the Authorization server cannot fully describe the full set of access rules in the scopes, and SHALL be prepared to handle failure gracefully.

Servers MAY choose to inform a client when information is not available, but most servers will simply behave as if it doesn’t exist (see note in FHIR specification).

Note that this specification labels some elements as must-support. This does not override the patient’s right to decide whether to authorize an application to access their information.