Improving Clinical Data Accessibility Through Automated FHIR Data Transformation Tools

TL;DR

This paper introduces a browser-based tool that transforms complex FHIR clinical data into user-friendly reports and visualizations, improving accessibility for clinicians and analysts.

Contribution

A lightweight, modular system that automatically converts raw FHIR JSON data into readable PDFs, Excel files, and visualizations, supporting online and offline use.

Findings

Enhances interpretability of FHIR data

Supports both remote and local data retrieval

Preserves semantic integrity of clinical data

Abstract

The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard has emerged as a widely adopted specification for exchanging structured clinical data across healthcare systems. However, raw FHIR resources are often complex, verbose, and difficult for clinicians and analysts to interpret without specialized tooling. This paper presents a lightweight, browser-based system that improves the accessibility of FHIR data by automatically transforming raw JSON resources into human-readable PDF and Excel reports, along with interactive data visualizations. The system supports both remote retrieval of FHIR resources from server endpoints and the upload of local FHIR JSON files, enabling both online and offline analysis. Using a modular React architecture with jsPDF, xlsx, and Recharts, the tool parses, normalizes, visualizes, and exports FHIR data in an intuitive format. Evaluation results demonstrate that the system enhances interpretability and usability while preserving the semantic integrity of FHIR structures. Limitations and future extensions, including expanded FHIR profile support and clinical validation, are discussed.