Building secure patient-provider communication: a Medplum Chat App example
In today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, telehealth and mHealth startups are revolutionizing care delivery. A critical component of this transformation is secure, real-time communication between patients and providers.
Implementing patient-provider communication isn’t just about sending messages — it’s about maintaining a complete system of record that integrates seamlessly with the broader healthcare ecosystem.
At Vinta, we've created an open-source example project demonstrating how startups can quickly implement health-focused instant messaging: the Medplum Chat App. This React Native mobile application showcases how to build secure, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-native chat functionality using Medplum as the backend.
Why leveraging Medplum’s FHIR-native approach for Healthcare apps
Medplum’s headless EHR approach suits this communication, particularly for building healthcare chat applications. It provides a complete FHIR system of record with native support for all FHIR resources, including threaded Communication resources. Additionally, Medplum offers more powerful granular authorization controls via Access Policies.
The FHIR-native approach for mobile apps enabled by Medplum offers several advantages, including:
- Integrated Health Records - Messages automatically become part of the patient’s medical record, essential for virtual care charting;
- Healthcare Context - Communications can be easily linked to other healthcare resources like telehealth appointments or lab results;
- Compliance & Auditing - The system maintains a complete audit trail of all interactions;
- Interoperability - Data can be seamlessly shared with other healthcare systems through FHIR APIs;
- Rapid Development - Startups can quickly implement secure and compliant chat features without reinventing the wheel.
By building on Medplum’s capabilities, our chat app demonstrates how to create instant messaging systems that are both user-friendly and healthcare-compliant. This allows healthtech innovators to move quickly while maintaining the necessary standards for healthcare communication.
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Technical implementation highlights of the Medplum Chat App
Secure Authentication
The example app implements Medplum's OAuth2 authentication system, supporting patient and practitioner roles. This ensures that providers maintain strict privacy controls while offering a seamless user experience.
Real-time Updates
Our implementation leverages Medplum’s WebSocket on React Native to support real-time messaging on both iOS and Android, enabling:
- Instant message delivery for real-time virtual encounters;
- Real-time status updates (sent, delivered, read);
- Immediate thread updates when new messages arrive.
Reusable Architecture for Fast Innovation
We've structured the app with reusability in mind, implementing a system of headless hooks that separate the business logic from the UI. This architecture provides several benefits for rapid innovation, such as easy code reuse across different mHealth projects and a clear separation of concerns for faster development.Without depending on specific UI components, our chat hooks handle all the complex aspects of healthcare messaging:
- Message threading and sorting;
- Real-time updates and synchronization;
- Message status management;
- Media attachments for sharing clinical images or documents.
Customizable UI/UX for your brand
The app is built using gluestack-ui v2 components and Tailwind CSS, providing a solid foundation for customization.
This setup allows startups to:
- Quickly modify the look and feel to match their brand;
- Add new UI components with consistent styling;
- Implement responsive designs that work across different screen sizes;
- Maintain a native feel while keeping the development process efficient.
Accelerating mHealth Innovation
The Medplum Chat App is designed to help healthcare startups accelerate their development process. Whether you're building a telemedicine platform, virtual care service, or innovative healthcare communication system, you can fork our project and build upon its foundation.
Key features you can extend for your mHealth startup:
- Support for push notifications;
- Integrate video calls;
- Add support for intake and questionnaire forms inside the app;
- Implement custom message templates for common clinical scenarios;
- Combine other FHIR resources like appointments and care plans;
- Pull patient records from HealthKit and Health Connect;
- Integrate with e-prescribing solutions;
- Display billing info directly in the app.
Vinta will continue developing the Medplum Chat App using open-source software. Some of those features are on our roadmap. Stay tuned!
Your mHealth Success, accelerated by Vinta
The Medplum Chat App demonstrates how healthcare innovators can combine compliance requirements with excellent user experience. By leveraging Medplum's headless EHR capabilities and React Native's cross-platform support, we've created a template that enables rapid development of secure, compliant, real-time health chat features.
The combination of FHIR-native architecture and reusable components makes this project an exceptional starting point for mHealth products. This foundation allows startups to focus on their unique value propositions rather than rebuilding basic communication infrastructure.We invite mHealth founders to explore the project on GitHub, try it out, and contribute to its development.
By leveraging Medplum's platform and partnering with experienced developers like those at Vinta, you can accelerate your path to market while ensuring your product meets quality and compliance standards.
