FHIR Technology is Driving Healthcare's Digital Revolution

Jeff Needham
December 21, 2021

Technology supporting healthcare’s digital transformation is so pervasive that the question isn’t what technology to choose, but rather, what problems need to be solved.

Advancing technology and access to secure and real-time data analytics will vastly improve patients’ health and happiness, and growing interoperability standards are pushing organizations forward in their digital transformations.

Together with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and leading healthcare insurance provider Humana, MongoDB recently released a three-part podcast series chronicling the ways Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), AI, and the cloud are reshaping healthcare for the better. Here’s a quick roundup of our discussions.

Data is the future of healthcare. Whether providers are driving patient engagement through wearable devices, wellness programs or connected care, data will take healthcare to the next digital frontier. We’ll see these advancements through AI, FHIR, and the cloud.
FHIR is revolutionizing healthcare technology. Not only is FHIR implementation a requirement, it’s also a crossroads for data architects. Choosing the right approach has deep implications for healthcare IT.
The operational data layer (ODL) approach to interoperability makes the impossible possible. Through Humana’s digital transformation journey, it became clear that meaningful progress isn’t possible using core legacy database systems.

AI, FHIR, and the cloud: Why data is the future of healthcare

In this episode, we dive into what a digital transformation would look like for the healthcare industry, and what are some of the biggest technology challenges facing healthcare today.

A digitally transformed healthcare industry will weave real-time data analytics with more personalized care. Patients today want a more modern healthcare experience that includes telemedicine, digital forms and touchless mobile check ins. The end goal is simple: maximize the human experience while advancing away from legacy technology systems that slow down both healthcare practitioners and patients.

When it comes to today’s biggest healthcare challenges, the cloud stands out as a key driver of promise and peril. The promise is that we can build applications, go to market and reach patients through wellness programs more quickly. The peril lies in the infrastructure, which is unknown to many healthcare organizations. This presents a unique challenge for the architects and certainly the developers at organizations with older legacy systems. The challenge here is avoiding a simple left hand shift or cloud for the sake of cloud, and moving from simple modernization to actual transformation.

Listen below to hear the entire conversation

Bring the FHIR inside for digital transformation

In episode 2, HIMSS and MongoDB take a closer look at why FHIR is a change agent in healthcare technology, and how healthcare organizations globally are using the new data standard to jump start legacy modernization and digital transformation.

What is FHIR?

The FHIR standard is a common set of schema definitions and APIs that helps providers and patients manage and exchange healthcare data. Using FHIR, records provided by healthcare organizations are standardized into a common data model over rest-based APIs. It makes the data that healthcare providers and payers use easier to exchange.

Growing regulatory pressure has accelerated U.S. FHIR adoption among healthcare organizations and technology vendors.The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) started a rolling deadline for FHIR compliance in 2020, with fines for institutions that fall behind. As a result, for most U.S.-based healthcare providers, payers, and their technology vendors, the past few years were a headlong race to adopt FHIR.

Here are three reasons why FHIR is hugely significant for healthcare technology leaders:

It’s a federal mandate from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
It’s a complex data integration challenge.
Legacy systems built before the mid 2010s are not interoperable with the FHIR mandate.

FHIR implementation approaches

For large organizations with huge data requirements, data architects can experience paralysis from the sheer volume of legacy systems to unwind. These groups have all of their patients’ electronic healthcare record information, payer information and more bound up in legacy systems, none of which is interoperable with FHIR. The second challenge is cloud migration, which can be skirted by organizations using a checkbox compliance approach. In those cases, API layers are used to ingest and serve data to legacy systems, but are not really integrated with the legacy system in real time. The most successful approach to tackling this challenge is not to rewrite, unwind or replace legacy systems completely, but keep them contained. We recommend bringing in an operational data layer that exposes the information in the legacy system and keeps it in sync with the legacy system, but then lands it in an ODL in the FHIR standard. With the FHIR API, patients and providers can interact with data in real time and access records in milliseconds after a diagnosis. Real-time records synced with legacy systems and patients’ private data is protected.

Delve into the full conversation below

FHIR and the future of healthcare at Humana

You don't have to take the rip and replace approach when modernizing your legacy systems with an ODL method. This was a key to successful modernization for Humana, as discussed in the third and final episode in our series.

For large enterprises that may have decades’ worth of acquired legacy systems, often pulling similar datasets from disparate databases, the pursuit of modernized interoperability begins to look like an impossible task.

Listen to the final episode of our podcast series to here how Humana’s ODL approach met the company’s data velocity requirements, and next steps for personalized healthcare and interoperability at Humana.

Listen to the entire conversation below

More related FHIR and healthcare resources

[White paper] Bring the FHIR Inside: Digital Transformation Without the Rip and Replace
[On-demand webinar] Building FHIR Applications with MongoDB

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Corporate Sales at MongoDB: Meet the Reps

MongoDB Corporate Account Executives sell into some of the world's highest growth and IT-focused companies, with a goal of securing net new logos in organizations of up to 1500 employees. They drive and build solutions that serve the best interest of our customers to help them innovate faster than ever before, often working directly with CTOs, Engineering/IT leaders, and technical end users. A majority of our Corporate Sales team sits in Austin, Texas, with other reps and leaders spread across the U.S. Meet three Corporate Account Executives to learn about their experience in the role and why our Corporate Sales org is a great place to grow your career. Sebastian Cañizares , Sr. Corporate Account Executive, Austin I joined MongoDB as a Cloud Account Executive back in 2019 to build a career. Not knowing it at the time, I felt I had reached a personal sales career plateau. I wanted a challenge in an industry that was vastly different from what I was accustomed to, with a sales process that could help me create a strong foundation. MongoDB sold me on three things: The “Sales MBA” : I didn't know of any other company investing as much time and resources on an individual as MongoDB was. A sales team with a formalized sales process and a full-fledged sales enablement team caught my eye. Leadership : The leaders at MongoDB come from diverse backgrounds. Going through the interview process I spoke with multiple leaders that challenged me intellectually and at the same time were so selfless. I was leaning in further. Market opportunity : At the time, MongoDB was a tiny piece of a growing database pie. Noticing the trends in the market, I wanted to be a part of a company that was positively influencing how technology was being made. Data was at the crux of it all, and MongoDB was challenging a legacy mindset while at the same time establishing incredible groundswell among its core community: developers. Now it was a matter of capitalizing on it and MongoDB was. I was fully bought in. I’m so glad I joined MongoDB back then, and truly believe it was a career altering decision. After nine months in the Cloud role, I transitioned to a Corporate Account Executive. If you haven’t read about our BDR to CRO program , the transition from Cloud to Corporate was one of the first internal sales promotion tracks that the Corporate Sales org built out. There was a promotion path in place with clear guidelines on what was needed to not only reach the next step but also excel in it. During the transition, I had the benefit of following reps that had gone through the process before me and were successful in that next role. They never hesitated in offering their time, helped whenever anyone asked, and created an environment that was both collaborative and positive. Additionally, the leadership team challenged me every step of the way. I was developed in the Cloud role by a former sales rep (who became my manager) who enabled me with the information and knowledge to foundationally succeed at MongoDB. He invested time and resources, and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity he prepared me for. Not only that, I had support from other leaders that wanted to see me succeed. They met with me on a regular basis, mentored me, and helped me gain a footing in the Corporate role. MongoDB’s leadership fosters a merit-based culture all while supporting you along the way. I experienced that in my transition from Cloud to Corporate and still see it in my current role today. It is rare that a company holds up to the things they say during the recruiting process, let alone over-deliver. MongoDB has done just that. I’ve been able to grow my sales career while also getting to talk to people daily that are creating things that are changing the way we interact with technology. It’s the perfect blend of career opportunity, intellectual curiosity, and enablement that I don’t believe I could get anywhere else. Now, why should someone join the Corporate Sales team? You get to witness a company that is fundamentally changing the status quo at the highest level You receive an enormous investment in sales enablement You collaborate with a team that is hungry, competitive, and best in class You work for an established company that is constantly innovating and growing You learn from some of the best sales leaders out there You grow your career at a company that values meritocracy and promotes from within You get to help build history Paige Springfield , Sr. Corporate Account Executive, Austin I took a leap and joined MongoDB in April 2020. When evaluating the opportunity, I had three top criteria. Market opportunity : MongoDB is a leader in the database industry and we’re just getting started. The product is best-in-class and mission critical to customers across all industries - this means uncapped opportunity and earning potential. The team : It was extremely important to me to be surrounded by colleagues who would uplevel and challenge me. Growth and development potential : MongoDB (especially the Corporate Sales org) is just getting started. We’re positioned to grow exponentially in the next two years and the number one focus across the leadership team is people development and promoting from within. At previous companies, I never felt invested in from a sales enablement perspective. Ramping typically meant a couple 1-hour training sessions and then it was off to the races. Here at MongoDB, I was blown away by the onboarding and training process from day one. I’d compare the experience to getting your MBA in sales. I think it speaks to leadership’s commitment to invest in people, their development, and ultimately their long term success. Our Sales Enablement team set me up with all the tools I needed to master the complex technology and a repeatable sales process. I’ve been on the team for a year and a half and seen a ton of success. Recently, I was promoted to a senior-level sales role and accepted into leadership upskill as part of our BDR to CRO program. Working at MongoDB has been the most transformative, rewarding time in my career. If you’re looking to uplevel yourself (both professionally and personally), the Corporate Account Executive role is an incredible opportunity. Drew Oros , Corporate Account Executive, New York City I joined MongoDB for three key reasons. Professional Development : My long-term goal is to become a professional executive for pre-IPO tech companies. I see a tremendous opportunity to build that expertise in the cloud infrastructure/services space. I know to get there, I need a great story selling technology that’s mission critical and best in class - that’s without a question MongoDB, and it has given me a great opportunity to start writing that story. Leadership and people : It was important to me to be around leaders and sellers I feel I could learn from, as I'm a firm believer that your network is equal to your net worth. At MongoDB, I feel like I’m surrounded by current and future household names in the software industry. Product and market opportunity : I only want to sell best in class, mission critical technology. It also has to be the right timing, and have a huge, total addressable market, and strong go-to-market motion. I knew if I found that, magic would happen. MongoDB is the most downloaded NoSQL database , and it fits a wide variety of use cases for mission critical applications. The TAM is estimated to be $82 billion by 2022 , and MongoDB’s sales org and process are key differentiators. Ramping into the Corporate Account Executive role can be challenging, however, you are amongst some of the best people in the software industry to learn from. I identified the skills that were key to becoming a great seller and met with three to five of the top reps to learn how they created a pattern of success in each of those areas. Ultimately, I identified pipeline generation best practices, meeting preparation, discovery calls, New Business Meeting excellence, champion building, and paper process as the key skills fundamental to creating, moving, and closing pipeline. “Build together” is one of MongoDB’s core values and a big reason why colleagues are so open to sharing what makes them successful. If you put in the time and effort, there’s no shortage of resources to learn from here. Overall, this year has been a great success story for me as I’m 200%+ of my yearly number and won the Most New Logos award in Q3. We believe in a culture of promotion - internal promotions are core to MongoDB’s culture and strategic to how the company scales. MongoDB does not get in the way of your personal growth, but rather accelerates it. The BDR to CRO program lays out what good versus great looks like and what you need to do in order to move farther down that path. Whatever your career goals are, MongoDB is a company that supports your interests and provides the investment to help get you there. Interested in pursuing a career in Corporate Sales at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

December 20, 2021

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MongoDB Named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Database Management Systems

I’m pleased to announce that MongoDB has been named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Database Management Systems (DBMSs) for the third consecutive year. In our view, this recognition cements MongoDB’s status as the only pure-play database provider in the cloud database management system category, underscoring MongoDB’s innovation, execution, and customer-centric approach. According to Gartner, “The cloud DBMS market remains as vibrant as ever and is transforming in important ways, especially in the use of gen AI and how DBMSs interact with other data management components. This Magic Quadrant will help data and analytics leaders make the right cloud DBMS choices in this essential market.” We believe this continued recognition by Gartner is a testament to MongoDB’s commitment to serving developers, as well as the investments we’ve made in our unified platform and integrated services. Driving innovation for enterprises MongoDB's mission is to empower innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data. 2024 was a year of innovation and accolades at MongoDB, and I’m proud to share some of its highlights: In October, we released MongoDB 8.0 , the best performing version of MongoDB yet. MongoDB 8.0 is over 30% faster than the previous version of the database, it’s more secure than ever, horizontal scaling is faster and easier (at a lower cost), and MongoDB 8.0 gives teams greater control for optimizing database performance. We also launched—and grew—the MongoDB AI Applications Program (MAAP) . With MAAP, MongoDB offers customers a full AI stack and an integrated set of professional services to help them keep pace with innovation, identify the best AI use cases, and to help them future-proof AI investments. MongoDB became a founding member of the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium . Established by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Consortium supports the development and deployment of safe and trustworthy AI. MongoDB released hundreds of features and enhancements to accelerate innovation, manage costs, and simplify building applications at scale. MongoDB was recognized as the most loved vector database in Retool’s State of AI report —for the second consecutive year. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for cloud database management systems “Gartner defines the cloud database management systems (DBMSs) market as solutions designed to store, manipulate, and persist data, primarily delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). These systems must support transactional, analytical, and hybrid workloads while enabling enterprises to innovate across multi-cloud, hybrid, and intercloud ecosystems.” 1 It’s our opinion that this recognition by Gartner is a testament to MongoDB’s strong ability to execute and support customers today, as well as MongoDB’s comprehensive product vision that positions our platform to support tomorrow's operational workloads. What is the Magic Quadrant, and what is a Leader? “A Gartner Magic Quadrant is a culmination of research in a specific market, giving you a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the market’s competitors. By applying a graphical treatment and a uniform set of evaluation criteria, a Magic Quadrant helps you quickly ascertain how well technology providers are executing their stated visions and how well they are performing against Gartner’s market view.” 2 According to Gartner, “Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.” Overall, Magic Quadrants can help you “get quickly educated about a market’s competing technology providers and their ability to deliver on what end-users require now and in the future.” Powering innovation at scale with MongoDB Atlas Enterprises choose MongoDB Atlas because it gives them the freedom and agility they need to succeed in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. MongoDB Atlas’s multi-cloud architecture—including availability across Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure—ensures customers can design for unmatched scale and resilience. By automating functions like scaling and performance optimization , and giving them the ability to leverage industry-first capabilities like MongoDB Queryable Encryption (which allows customers to encrypt, store, and perform queries directly on data), with MongoDB Atlas customers can spend less time managing infrastructure and more time delivering experiences. MongoDB Atlas’s integrated capabilities to support multi-modal data types and use cases—like full-text and vector search , stream processing , and data federation —accelerate innovation, helping enterprises quickly respond to market changes, power AI-driven insights, and deliver meaningful digital experiences to their end users—all without the burden of operational complexity. Modernizing and building for the future In our opinion, the Gartner Magic Quadrant provides organizations with a clear and accessible evaluation framework to identify solutions that fit their needs, today and tomorrow. The placement of MongoDB in the Leader quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems—for the third year in a row!—validates the efforts MongoDB has made to help developers and organizations take advantage of their most valuable resource, their data. I talk to MongoDB customers frequently, and many say the same thing: in today’s digital-first economy, AI-powered applications and scalable data infrastructure aren’t just advantages, they’re absolute necessities. They say that the time to act is now, and they’re looking for solutions that will help them innovate, streamline, and seize the AI-driven future. And when it comes to modernizing their operations, they consistently point to MongoDB as their go-to partner. Begin your cloud journey with MongoDB Atlas today. Contact our sales team or register for a free account to begin building! And to learn how MongoDB can help accelerate your AI journey, visit the MongoDB AI Applications Program page. Footnotes Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems, Henry Cook, Ramke Ramakrishnan, et al., 18 December 2024 GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 1 Gartner Peer Insights, Cloud Database Management Systems, December 2024 https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/cloud-database-management-systems 2 Gartner Research Methodologies, Gartner Magic Quadrant, 20 December 2024 https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research

December 23, 2024