Healthcare & Technical Glossary
Healthcare Terms
A
- Acute Care: Short-term medical care for severe injury or illness
- Authorization: Approval from insurance for medical procedures
- ACO: Accountable Care Organization - A group of healthcare providers who coordinate care for Medicare patients
B
- BMI: Body Mass Index - A measure of body fat based on height and weight
C
- CMS: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Federal agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs
- CPT Code: Current Procedural Terminology Code - Codes used for medical services and procedures
- Care Coordination: Organization of patient care activities between two or more participants involved in a patient's care
- Care Management: Proactive management of a patient's health to improve outcomes and control costs
- Chronic Care Management: Ongoing care for patients with multiple chronic conditions
D
- Demographics: Basic personal information about a patient
- DRG: Diagnosis Related Group - A system to classify hospital cases for payment
E
- EHR: Electronic Health Record - Digital version of a patient's complete medical history
- EMR: Electronic Medical Record - Digital version of a patient's chart at a single facility
- Encounter: A direct interaction between a patient and healthcare provider
F
- FHIR: Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources - A standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically
- Fee-for-Service: Payment model where providers are paid for each service performed
H
- HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
- HL7: Health Level Seven - Set of standards for transfer of clinical data
- HCC: Hierarchical Condition Category - Risk adjustment model used by CMS for Medicare Advantage plans
I
- ICD: International Classification of Diseases - Standardized diagnostic codes
- Interoperability: Ability of different systems to exchange and use information
- Intake: Initial process of collecting patient information and assessing needs
L
- LOINC: Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes - Universal standard for identifying medical laboratory observations
P
- PHI: Protected Health Information - Individually identifiable health information
- Population Health: Health outcomes of a group of individuals
- Prior Authorization: Pre-approval required by insurance for certain services
Q
- Quality Measures: Tools that help measure healthcare processes, outcomes, and organizational structures
R
- Risk Adjustment: Method to offset the cost of providing health insurance for individuals with higher health risks
- Risk Stratification: Process of categorizing patients by risk level
S
- SNOMED CT: Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms - Comprehensive clinical terminology
- Social Determinants of Health: Economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status
Technical Terms
A
- API: Application Programming Interface - A set of rules that allow different software applications to communicate with each other
- AWS: Amazon Web Services - Cloud computing platform providing infrastructure and services
- Authentication: Process of verifying a user's identity
- Authorization: Process of determining a user's access permissions
B
- Bundle: In FHIR, a collection of resources in a single package
- Batch Processing: Method of processing data in groups rather than individually
C
- Cache: Temporary storage area for frequently accessed data
- CRUD: Create, Read, Update, Delete - Basic functions of persistent storage
- CRM: Customer Relationship Management - System for managing interactions with customers
D
- Data Mapping: Process of matching fields from one database to another
- Data Warehouse: System for reporting and data analysis
E
- Endpoint: Point of entry in a communication channel
- ETL: Extract, Transform, Load - Process of combining data from multiple sources
F
- FHIR: Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources - Standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically
- Firewall: Network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic
H
- HL7v2: Health Level Seven Version 2 - Messaging standard for healthcare data exchange
- HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol - Foundation of data communication on the web
J
- JSON: JavaScript Object Notation - Lightweight data interchange format
- JWT: JSON Web Token - Compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties
O
- OAuth: Open standard for access delegation
- ONC: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
P
- PaaS: Platform as a Service
- PHI: Protected Health Information - Individually identifiable health information
- Pipeline: Series of data processing elements connected in series
R
- REST: Representational State Transfer - Architectural style for distributed systems
- RESTful API: API that conforms to the constraints of REST architecture
- Resource: In FHIR, a single unit of exchangeable content with a defined behavior and meaning
S
- SDK: Software Development Kit - Set of tools for creating applications
- SFTP: Secure File Transfer Protocol - Network protocol for secure file transfer
- SLA: Service Level Agreement - Commitment between a service provider and a client
- SMART on FHIR: Set of open specifications to integrate apps with Electronic Health Records and health portals
T
- Token: A piece of data used for authenticating a user session
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Security process requiring two different authentication factors
V
- VPN: Virtual Private Network - Extends a private network across a public network
W
- Web Service: Service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating via the internet
- Webhook: HTTP callback that occurs when something happens
X
- XML: Extensible Markup Language - Format for encoding documents
This glossary is continuously updated as new terms are added to the platform. If you have suggestions for additional terms, please contact the documentation team.