HL7® FHIR® R4
The international standard for exchanging health data. Every result is
stored as an Observation resource, the whole set as a
Bundle.
how & why · first person
I built this because this bridge wasn't supposed to exist outside the US.
If you live in the US, or partially the UK, your lab results already flow into Apple Health from a network of connected clinics (Epic, Cerner). Everyone else watches through the glass. In Poland, Diagnostyka and ALAB each have their own app, none of which sync to Apple Health. And nobody ships to Apple Health. That gap just ate at me.
Where this came from
I like data centralization. Fitness, sleep, heart rate — all already in Apple Health, on my phone, behind my own biometric lock. Apple's privacy model is what makes it valuable to me: data lives with you, not in the device vendor's cloud. But a piece of the puzzle was missing — lab results.
I started reading why I couldn't just upload them myself. A long list of formal blockers: Apple Health Records is an institutional program, needs a FHIR API hookup, needs verification through the VCI Directory, and effectively works only for US (and a handful of UK) clinic networks. Non-US labs could theoretically join — but that's their move, not mine.
The breakthrough
Then I found the second lane: SMART Health Card. A format originally designed for COVID vaccination certificates, technically a signed JWS wrapping a FHIR bundle. Apple Health accepts this format via user file import — and, as my experiments confirmed: it also accepts the "laboratory" type from any issuer, not just vaccinations from an institution.
I felt like a kid who found a door. Built a prototype. Generated three cards with three dates. Imported into Health on my iPhone. Got discrete measurements with a trend chart across 3 years — exactly like from a connected clinic. The only difference: a grey "unverified" badge — which is honest: the card came from a converter tool, not from a lab.
What this is built on
No proprietary format — underneath there are three open standards that Apple Health already speaks.
SMART Health Cards 1.4.0
The wrapper and the signature. The FHIR bundle is compressed and signed
cryptographically (JWS ES256) — Apple Health recognises this
format natively.
LOINC® + UCUM
Universal codes for tests and units. They are the reason “glucose” from one lab and from another land on the same trend chart.
LOINC dictionary →Who is this for?
Realistically: I don't expect to make money on this. It's a hobby project, a developer portfolio piece, and maybe a small nudge at labs to do this themselves. If Diagnostyka or LabCorp sees users uploading their own results to Apple Health via file, maybe it'll push them to do it officially — with a green "Verified" badge and no intermediary.
And if not — I have an interesting project that I use myself, and that might help someone who, like me, wants their data in one place.
Principles I stick to
- Nothing leaves your device. Literally no server exists that could accept your PDF. It's not "we promise not to look" — it's an architecture where there is nothing to look with.
- Transcribe, don't interpret. LabCard converts formats. It doesn't flag results as "good/bad" or suggest diagnoses. That's the medical-device regulatory boundary, and mine.
- Honest about card status. The card is unverified, issued by a tool, not a lab. Apple Health shows this as a grey badge and that's fine — it reflects the truth.
- Stability risk. I'm outside Apple's officially supported scenario. Works today, might break tomorrow. If so, I'll update it — or not, since it's a hobby.
What's next
The roadmap is more a map than a commitment: universal OCR (ALAB, Synevo, LabCorp, Quest, and beyond), an expanded LOINC dictionary from official sources, an editable preview table, further integrations as they mature. All done on evenings and weekends, so no deadlines.