Using Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources to Promote Continuous Rehabilitation Care in Stroke Patients

The primary goal of stroke rehabilitation is to restore patients' functional abilities and improve their performance in daily activities.However, after the acute phase, it becomes challenging to continuously track functional recovery, especially when patients are referred to different community-based hospitals.Although widely used, the Modified Barthel Index (MBI) lacks consistent integration across electronic systems, making it difficult for clinicians to assess progress efficiently.This study presents the design and implementation of an interoperable Personal Health Record (PHR) system that leverages Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR) to support continuous stroke rehabilitation care.We extracted MBI data from existing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and structured them using HL7 FHIR resources to enable seamless data sharing among institutions.The system architecture includes a tethered PHR integrated with the EHR via a HAPI FHIR server.This allows patients and clinicians to view functional recovery data in a userfriendly format over time.Validation tests confirmed compliance with FHIR standards, and a heuristic evaluation by healthcare and IT professionals revealed minor usability issues.The results suggest that our FHIR-based PHR model facilitates real-time monitoring of stroke rehabilitation, improves clinical decision-making, and enhances the continuity of care.This approach represents a scalable and standards-based solution that can be adapted for other chronic care conditions requiring long-term monitoring.Future research will focus on integrating additional clinical indicators and evaluating patient-centered outcomes.