Testing the FHIR API on Azure API for FHIR

Artikkel
10/12/2023

Important

Azure API for FHIR will be retired on September 30, 2026. Follow the migration strategies to transition to Azure Health Data Services FHIR service by that date. Due to the retirement of Azure API for FHIR, new deployments won't be allowed beginning April 1, 2025. Azure Health Data Services FHIR service is the evolved version of Azure API for FHIR that enables customers to manage FHIR, DICOM, and MedTech services with integrations into other Azure services.

In the previous tutorial, you deployed the Azure API for FHIR and registered your client application. You're now ready to test your Azure API for FHIR.

Retrieve capability statement

First we'll get the capability statement for your Azure API for FHIR.

Open Postman.
Retrieve the capability statement by doing GET https://\<FHIR-SERVER-NAME>.azurehealthcareapis.com/metadata. In the image below the FHIR server name is fhirserver.

Capability Statement

Next we'll attempt to retrieve a patient. To retrieve a patient, enter GET https://\<FHIR-SERVER-NAME>.azurehealthcareapis.com/Patient. You’ll receive a 401 Unauthorized error. This error is because you haven't proven that you should have access to patient data.

Get patient from FHIR server

Failed Patient

In order to gain access, you need an access token.

Select Authorization and set the Type to OAuth2.0 in Postman.
Select Get New Access Token.
Fill in the fields and select Request Token. Below you can see the values for each field for this tutorial.

Field	Value
Token Name	A name for your token
Grant Type	Authorization Code
Callback URL	https://www.getpostman.com/oauth2/callback
Auth URL	https://login.microsoftonline.com/<AZURE-AD-TENANT-ID>/oauth2/?resource=https://<FHIR-SERVER-NAME>.azurehealthcareapis.com
Access Token URL	https://login.microsoftonline.com/<AZURE-AD-TENANT-ID>/oauth2/token
Client ID	The client ID that you copied during the previous steps
Client Secret	<BLANK>
Scope	<BLANK>
State	1234
Client Authentication	Send client credentials in body

Sign in with your credentials and select Accept
Scroll down on the result and select Use Token
Select Send again at the top and this time you should get a result

Post patient into FHIR server

Now you have access, you can create a new patient. Here's a sample of a simple patient you can add into your FHIR server. Enter this json into the Body section of Postman.

    {
        "resourceType": "Patient",
        "active": true,
        "name": [
            {
                "use": "official",
                "family": "Kirk",
                "given": [
                    "James",
                    "Tiberious"
                ]
            },
            {
                "use": "usual",
                "given": [
                    "Jim"
                ]
            }
        ],
        "gender": "male",
        "birthDate": "1960-12-25"
    }

This POST will create a new patient in your FHIR server with the name James Tiberious Kirk. Post Patient

If you do the GET command to retrieve a patient again, you'll see James Tiberious Kirk listed in the output.

Note

When sending requests to the Azure API for FHIR, you need to ensure that you've set the content-type header to application/json

Troubleshooting access issues

If you ran into issues during any of these steps, review the documents we have put together on Microsoft Entra ID and the Azure API for FHIR.

Microsoft Entra ID and Azure API for FHIR - This document outlines some of the basic principles of Microsoft Entra ID and how it interacts with the Azure API for FHIR.
Access token validation - This how-to guide gives more specific details on access token validation and steps to take to resolve access issues.

Next Steps

Now that you can successfully connect to your client application, you’re ready to write your web application.

Write a web application

FHIR® is a registered trademark of HL7 and is used with the permission of HL7.