Fasten - On Premise/Self-Hosted

What is the project about?

Fasten is an open-source, self-hosted personal/family electronic medical record (EMR) aggregator. It's designed to securely connect to various healthcare providers and consolidate a user's (or family's) medical information into a single, locally-stored health record. It emphasizes privacy and control by keeping the data on the user's own infrastructure.

What problem does it solve?

It addresses the problem of fragmented medical records spread across multiple healthcare providers (hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, labs, etc.). It provides a unified view of a person's medical history, eliminating the need to log into multiple patient portals or maintain paper records. It also prioritizes data privacy by avoiding cloud storage by default.

What are the features of the project?

Self-hosted: Runs on the user's own server/computer, ensuring data privacy.
Family-oriented: Designed for use by individuals and families, unlike many EMR systems built for clinics.
FHIR protocol support: Uses the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard for data exchange.
OAuth2 (Smart-on-FHIR) authentication: Securely connects to healthcare providers without storing passwords.
Automatic updates: Uses OAuth's offline_access scope (where available) to automatically retrieve updates from connected providers.
Multi-user support (Future): Planned support for multiple users within a household, with role-based access control (admin, viewer).
Condition-specific dashboards (Future): Planned dashboards and tracking for specific conditions and diagnostic tests.
Clinical guideline recommendations (Future): Planned integration with NIH/WHO guidelines for vaccinations and condition management.
ChatGPT-style interface (Future): Planned natural language querying of medical history (offline).
Smart device integration (Future): Planned integration with wearables and smart devices.
Two versions: A "sandbox" version with synthetic data for testing, and a "main" version for connecting to real healthcare providers.

What are the technologies used in the project?

Docker: Used for containerization and deployment.
FHIR: The core data standard for healthcare information exchange.
OAuth2 (Smart-on-FHIR): Used for secure authentication and authorization with healthcare providers.
Implied, but not explicitly stated: A web server and database are used, given the web interface and data storage requirements. The docker run command maps volumes for db and cache.

What are the benefits of the project?

Data privacy and control: Users maintain full control over their medical data.
Consolidated medical history: Provides a single, unified view of medical records from various sources.
Automatic updates: Keeps records up-to-date without manual intervention (where supported by providers).
Open-source and auditable: The code is publicly available for review and contributions.
Family-focused: Designed to manage the health records of multiple family members.
Future-proof: Planned features like clinical guideline integration and smart device connectivity suggest ongoing development.

What are the use cases of the project?

Individuals: Managing personal health records from various providers.
Families: Tracking the health of multiple family members in a centralized location.
Caregivers: Providing limited, view-only access to a patient's records (with appropriate permissions).
Researchers (Potentially): With appropriate anonymization and consent, the aggregated data could be used for research, though this is not a primary focus. The self-hosted nature makes this more complex.
Patients with chronic conditions: The planned condition-specific dashboards would be particularly useful for managing ongoing health issues.

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