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Healthcare & Technical Glossary

Healthcare Terms​

A​

  • Acute Care: Short-term medical care for severe injury or illness
  • Authorization: Approval required before certain medical procedures can be performed
  • 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
  • Final Reports: Clinical documents shared with a patient in the patient portal — such as a Treatment Summary, Progress Note, Discharge Summary, or Consultation. Distinct from admin analytics Reports (see the Technical Terms section)

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 before certain healthcare services can be provided

Q​

  • Quality Measures: Tools that help measure healthcare processes, outcomes, and organizational structures

R​

  • Risk Adjustment: Method to account for differences in patient health status when comparing outcomes across populations
  • 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
  • Reports (admin): Analytics and operational reports for administrators — registration funnel, financial reconciliation, appointment reminders, duplicate detection, and custom SQL reports. Distinct from patient-portal Final Reports (clinical documents; see the Healthcare Terms section). See Built-in Reports
  • 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.