Optimize API Performance

• Use precise search parameters. Filter by fields such as date, type, or status to reduce response size and improve query speed.
• Paginate large results. Use the link.relation = "next" value in the response bundle to retrieve additional pages of results.
• Avoid unnecessary polling. Use FHIR Subscriptions or scheduled queries to minimize load and improve efficiency.

Manage Authentication Securely

• Rotate credentials regularly. Periodically update your client_id and client_secret in accordance with your organization’s security policy.
• Protect tokens. Store access tokens securely in a server-side vault. Do not expose them in client-side code.
• Monitor token expiration. Access tokens expire after one hour. Automatically renew tokens using the client credentials flow.

Handle Errors and Retries Robustly

• Retry transient errors. For status codes like 429, 500, 503, and 504, implement exponential backoff with capped retries.
• Log error details. Capture OperationOutcome responses and X-HG-Request-ID headers to support debugging and incident response.
• Avoid retry storms. Implement retry limits to prevent cascading failures during outages or rate limiting.

Monitor and Audit Usage

• Track critical API operations. Log all authentication attempts, FHIR queries, patient lookups, and webhook events.
• Respond to webhooks promptly. Return HTTP 2XX within 5–10 seconds to avoid retries.
• Audit group enrollment. Periodically verify group membership for patients enrolled in alerting or cohort-based queries.

Scale Thoughtfully

• Batch operations when available. Use batch APIs (such as Group enrollment) to reduce overhead.
• Stagger queries. Distribute queries for large patient panels to avoid spikes in load or rate-limit violations.
• Use asynchronous workflows. For high-volume jobs (such as Patient360 data aggregation), use async endpoints when supported.