FHIR APIs

Part 1: Creating an FHIR API – Google or Azure?

Zach Gardner API Development, Articles, Cloud, Creating an FHIR API, Healthcare, Security, Tutorial Leave a Comment

Data interoperability is one of the hardest problems in Healthcare IT. The most popular approach is to exchange HL7v2 messages between systems. These pipe-delimited messages are difficult to read by a human and often need additional customizations between implementations.

The next major paradigm shift is towards FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), a JSON-based standard that is evolving ahead of the needs of the industry. Cloud vendors like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are trying to lay their claim to be the one-stop shop for healthcare on the cloud.

This blog is part of a 4 part series diving into an actual use case I recently encountered while working with a client. I had to stand up an FHIR repository/API for 2+ million patients that could be used by hundreds of users every day, as well as countless background processes.

better sort in JavaScript

Better Sort Ordering in JavaScript

Lou Mauget Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, JavaScript, Programming, Tutorial 2 Comments

In this post, I show how to cajole Array.sort() into producing the following order. This: [Item 1, Item 2, Item 100] instead of this…[Item 1, Item 100, Item 2].

The answer is to pass the sort function a comparator argument from the International Collator built into every major browser and Node.js. This approach is simple and declarative for lists of flat strings. The comparison function arguments default to each string being compared. For sorting objects such as a list of dropdown choices, just pass a pair of the sort field drill-downs to the comparison function.

Jakt: A First Look

First Look: The Jakt Programming Language

Luke Zeisset Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, Programming 1 Comment

There seems to be a renaissance in systems programming languages. Updates to C and C++ don’t seem to get the attention of a lot of developers that aren’t already interested in their development. In contrast, languages like Go, Rust, and Zig are hot topics that seem to do an excellent job recruiting people, nearly providing the level of accessibility that Python does.

A fairly new programming language appeared this year that strikes an intriguing balance between C++ and Rust. That language is Jakt, and I’d like to shine some light on it.

feature flags diagram

A Quick Look at Feature Flags

Braden Niswonger Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, Programming 3 Comments

Using feature flags, also known as feature toggles or switches, is a software technique that allows segments of code to be toggled during runtime, without the need for redeploying.

Feature flags can be a powerful tool for teams utilizing continuous integration practices, allowing code to be deployed in a dormant state and enabled later on. At a basic level, they provide the ability to conditionally render or activate features at will.

In the blog, I’ll cover feature flags. We’ll start by discussing why and when we use them, and then we’ll move into an overview of what it looks like to develop with them. Let’s dive in!