Published: 30 Jul 2024

Diagnosis APIs: A Valuable Tool for Patients and Healthcare Professionals

In the past, parents seeking advice on caring for a sick child typically visited their pediatrician.

Similarly, medical professionals may consult external resources to obtain potential diagnoses. Diagnosis application programming interfaces (APIs) provide a platform for users to input a condition and receive a list of possible diagnoses. Many medical websites and apps rely on APIs to offer this functionality.

What is a Medical API?

A diagnosis API serves as a central repository for various types of medical data. By sending a GET request to an API, websites and apps can access information related to drug interactions, common disease symptoms, and treatment options.

How does a Medical API Function?

APIs operate in different ways, but they generally accept GET and POST requests. GET requests retrieve specific pieces of information, while POST requests send and receive data in a machine-readable format like JSON.

To ensure the security of requests, the Diagnosis API uses a custom HTTP header. Upon registering for a production order, users receive a unique AuthenticationID.

Initial Request

The core endpoint of the Diagnosis API, `/api/DDxItems/`, processes diagnosis POST requests. Each request must include the AuthenticationID header. To initiate the diagnosis process, a list of observed symptoms is required.

The API responds in JSON format, even for error messages. For use during the trial period, users can access the API with the AuthenticationID `DEMO_AuthenticationID`.

Setup

The current version of the Diagnosis API is available at https://diagnosisapi.azurewebsites.net.