SMART Health Links is an open standard that lets patients share their complete health records instantly — via QR code or secure link. No forms. No waiting. No vendor lock-in.
Your Health Summary
Scan to share securely
The Problem
Every visit starts the same: another clipboard, another stack of forms, another 20 minutes of writing the same information you've written a hundred times before.
Times Per Year
patients repeat the same health information to different providers
Average Wait
spent on intake paperwork before even seeing a provider
Error Rate
of paper forms contain at least one data entry or transcription error
How It Works
Link your health data from your patient portal, EHR, or health plan — securely and on your terms.
Get a SMART Health Link — a scannable QR code or shareable URL containing your verified health summary.
Show your QR code at the front desk or send your link ahead of your visit. No clipboard required.
Your provider receives your complete, verified FHIR data instantly. Accurate, current, and paperless.
Features
Replace clipboards and paper forms with a single QR scan. Check-in in seconds, not minutes.
Patient-controlled sharing with end-to-end encryption. Optional passcode protection and expiration dates.
Built on HL7 FHIR R4 and the SMART Health Links specification. Standards-based from the ground up.
Integrates with Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, and other major EHR platforms. No rip-and-replace required.
Your health link stays current. When records update, the shared data reflects changes automatically.
Supports the IPS standard for cross-border health data sharing. Your records travel with you, worldwide.
What's Inside a Health Link
A SMART Health Link can contain any FHIR resource. Here's what a typical patient summary includes:
Current prescriptions, dosages, and medication history
Drug allergies, food allergies, and adverse reactions
Active problems, chronic conditions, and past diagnoses
Health plan details, member ID, and coverage information
Blood pressure, labs, imaging results, and observations
Clinical notes, discharge summaries, and encounter history
Vaccination records including COVID-19, flu, and childhood vaccines
IPS-compliant summary for cross-border and emergency care
A SMART Health Link puts you in control of your health records. Here's how to get one and use it at your next appointment.
Your health insurer, patient portal (like MyChart), or a SMART Health Links-enabled app can generate a link for you. It contains your health summary as structured FHIR data — the same standard your doctors use.
Your link might include everything — medications, allergies, conditions, insurance, immunizations — or just the pieces you choose. You can add a passcode and set an expiration date so the link doesn't stay open forever.
At check-in, pull up the QR code on your phone and let the front desk scan it. Or send the link ahead of time via email or text. No app downloads required on the provider's side — it works in any browser.
Your provider has your verified health data instantly. No handwriting to decipher, no forms to fill out, no information lost in translation. You can revoke access at any time.
No app required. SMART Health Links is an open standard — it works across any app or system that implements the spec. Ask your health plan or patient portal if they support SHLinks.
Receiving a SMART Health Link is straightforward. Here's what your clinic, EHR, or application needs to know.
A patient presents a QR code or sends a URL. The link is a shlink:// URI that encodes a manifest URL and an optional decryption key. Any QR scanner or camera app can read it.
POST to the manifest URL with the recipient's identity (optional). The response contains a list of files — each is either an embedded FHIR resource or a URL to retrieve one. If passcode-protected, prompt for the PIN.
Files are encrypted with the key from the link itself. Decrypt, then parse standard FHIR Bundles — Patient, Condition, MedicationRequest, AllergyIntolerance, Immunization, Coverage, and more.
Map the FHIR resources into your EHR, intake form, or clinical dashboard. Since the data is structured and coded (SNOMED, RxNorm, LOINC), it can be ingested programmatically — no OCR or manual entry.
The SMART Health IT team maintains open-source reference implementations and a viewer you can try today:
Trust & Compliance
Open Standard
SMART Health Links is an open specification published by HL7 International. No vendor lock-in, no licensing fees, no gatekeepers. Anyone can implement it.
Published by HL7 FHIR under an open license. Read the spec, implement it, contribute to it — no permission needed.
Works across any compliant system. Patients aren't tied to a single app, and providers aren't tied to a single vendor.
Developed by the SMART Health IT community with input from patients, providers, EHR vendors, and health plans.
FAQ
A SMART Health Link (SHL) is a secure, shareable URL or QR code that gives authorized recipients access to your health data. Built on the HL7 FHIR standard and the SMART Health Links specification, it lets you share your complete health summary — medications, allergies, conditions, insurance, and more — without paper forms or patient portals. You control access, expiration, and passcode protection.
Yes. The spec requires AES-256-GCM encryption for all shared data. The decryption key is embedded in the link itself and never sent to the server. You can add passcode protection and set expiration dates. Since SMART Health Links is an open standard, security is baked into the protocol — any conformant implementation must meet these requirements.
Any system that supports FHIR R4 can implement SMART Health Links. Major EHR vendors like Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), and athenahealth already support FHIR APIs that can produce and consume the data. Since SHLinks is a standard protocol, receiving a link requires only an HTTP client and a JSON parser — no vendor-specific integration.
"Kill the Clipboard" is a movement to eliminate redundant paper-based intake processes in healthcare. The goal is to enable patients to digitally share their health information with providers, ending the era of repetitive clipboard forms. SMART Health Links is a key technology enabling this vision.
The protocol is deliberately simple. Receiving a SMART Health Link involves decoding a URL, making one HTTP POST, decrypting a payload, and parsing FHIR JSON. Reference implementations exist in JavaScript and other languages. For a basic viewer, a developer can have a working prototype in a day. Full EHR integration depends on your system but the spec keeps the surface area small.
Yes. You have full control over your health links at all times. You can deactivate any link instantly, change the passcode, adjust the expiration date, or modify which data is included. Patient control is a core principle of the SMART Health Links specification.
SMART Health Links is published by HL7 International and maintained by the SMART Health IT community. Read the specification, try the demo viewer, or start building.