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Show HN: Metriport – Open-source universal API for health data (github.com)

47 points by celsinga ↗ HN
Hey HN, we’re Colin and Dima, founders of Metriport (https://metriport.com/). We help digital health companies access and manage user health and medical data, through an open-source and universal API. Today we're launching our open-source Health Devices API, which allows companies to gain access to their users’ health data from various wearables, RPM devices, and mHealth apps. You can check out the public Github repo here: https://github.com/metriport/metriport

For developers in the health data space, building integrations to various data sources is a huge pain, as it means wrangling different data formats, gaining access to the APIs in the first place, and ultimately spending precious developer resources building out data pipelines. We solve this pain for you through our open-source API, which is quick and easy to get started with (see: https://docs.metriport.com/getting-started/connect-quickstar...).

Out of the box, our Health Devices API supports integrations with Fitbit, Oura, Whoop, Withings, and Cronometer. We plan to add many more, including Garmin, Apple Health, and Google Fit in the near term. We work closely with our customers, so if there’s an integration you need, we’re more than happy to build it into our API. Because we’re open-source, you can also fork our code and build your own custom integrations.

Getting started is simple. To start getting data from your users:

1) Create a developer account and generate an API key: https://dash.metriport.com/

2) Set up our client on your server and initialize it with your API key: https://docs.metriport.com/getting-started/connect-quickstar...

3) Link the Metriport Connect widget into your app. This pre-built widget makes it easy for your users to connect all their data sources into your application.

Now you’re ready to start accessing your users’ health data from their sources they’ve connected.

We also offer a hosted SaaS solution with usage-based pricing, with no minimum platform fees. We believe this will open doors to a wide range of early stage companies and help drive innovation in the digital health industry.

While we’re excited to be launching this product today and be the first open-source Health Devices API of its kind, we’re also really looking forward to sharing our Medical API with you in the coming months. You can find out more about that here: https://metriport.com/medical

We can’t wait to see how this API is used and what it helps companies develop. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, and happy developing!

11 comments

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vcryan
Call me crazy, but I'm one of those people who wants their medical information to be harder to get, not easier.

I don't want any company to have it at all, including hospitals, etc. I'd prefer to come in with a thumb drive with medical information in a human readable format and that's it. Or you know, a folder with some papers in it.

jdoss
I want it to be easier for me to get. I want software that will let me collect my own health data in a medium I can control (selfhosted or SaaS) were I can give grant and remove access to providers. This way they can into my system and look at my data but not pull it down into their systems.
version_five
There are two issues though. One is security, the second is the actual protocol for sharing data.

As an aside I don't really like to see products like this either, because I don't like the idea of normalizing sharing health information. Unfortunately, the data you share will almost exclusively be used against your interests. Your Fitbit for example, doctors aren't going to care, but insurance companies will find ways to use it against you, and advertisers will find ways to "target" you, etc.

But in principle, having a patchwork of data exchange protocols isn't going to change any of that. We need strong regulation (I would argue most 3rd party uses should just be illegal) and good security, but might as well have a standard data exchange protocol on the off change there's a legitimate use for it

celsinga
We definitely understand your concerns here, and appreciate your thoughts in regards to sharing private health information.

One thing to note is almost all of our customers so far are healthtech and healthcare companies that are primarily interested in improving the outcomes of their own patients. Wearables and consumer health data aside, access to medical records in the US is currently a huge problem, as many individuals still aren't able to access their own medical records, largely due to gatekeeping by hospitals and other medical providers who use proprietary systems. We wanted to go after this problem with the main goal of improving patient outcomes at the end of the day, and provide a legitimate alternative to the proprietary players that exist in the space who make access to data much more difficult and expensive than it should be.

celsinga
Appreciate your perspective on this! We definitely understand the concern for not wanting anyone to have access to your medical data without your explicit consent, so that's why we're approaching this with the idea of ultimately leaving the individual in charge at the end of the day. It should really be up to the individual if they want to allow access to their data, but if they do, it should be as seamless as possible for them. This is exactly the future we see for personal health data, and is the sort of system we would want ourselves. Of course this should be done in a secure and private manner as well, which is why we're HIPAA & SOC 2 compliant, and are only a pass-through solution with no actual data being stored.
dinkumthinkum
Well, you did invite people to call you crazy. I think you’d be in a statistically insignificant minority even among tech type people.
eternityforest
Medical errors kill many people every year.

I don't think I have any relevant allergies or anything, but if I did, I would want the hospital to have 100% instant access to every piece of data

NoGravitas
I can definitely see this ending badly in a few years. Cloud storage is hacked (or just left wide open), medical records leaked. Or the company bought out by someone less scrupulous.

We need to get serious about treating user/customer data as hazardous waste. Have as little of it as you can to do the job, and make safe storage a life-or-death priority, not just something to tick off on a certification checklist.

celsinga
We definitely share the same opinion in regards to treating medical data like hazardous waste. Right now our solution is entirely pass-through, but down the road if we're storing data, we won't be just relying on the fact we're HIPAA & SOC 2 compliant, but instead we'll be approaching safe storage as a life-or-death priority. This is why we believe open-source has a huge advantage - by allowing our code to be audited by the world. What we're doing with the data will ultimately be visible for the world to see. We also won't be selling to someone less scrupulous, as we're the ones trying to set the standard in the space.
mike_d
Apple Health already does this, with the backing of a company that both consumers and the medical industry trust. Everything else you've pitched is things that sound nice, but ultimately are not differentiators to decision makers.

Right now you have to ask yourself two questions: 1) what is a related problem that we can genuinely solve in a robust way that people are willing to pay to have solved, and 2) do you have enough runway in the bank to pivot?