Technical Information

How CDP and Data Mart Work
The CDIS infrastructure in REDCap utilizes the “SMART on FHIR” technology stack (sometimes referred to
simply as “FHIR services”), which is a set of HTTP web services that can transfer data out of an EHR in a
standardized FHIR data format. The FHIR web services utilize OAuth2 for authorization of users in the
EHR when exporting data from the EHR into REDCap. Most popular EHR systems have their own
implementation of the FHIR web services, thus the setup process on the EHR side may vary from system
to system, but the overall technology framework and data format will work essentially the same for all
FHIR-enabled EHRs.

From a technical standpoint, the CDIS infrastructure requires that the EHR’s server that hosts the FHIR
services will communicate securely via HTTPS (i.e., encryption-in-transit) with that institution’s REDCap
server (and vice versa). In order for the two systems to communicate with each other and operate
successfully, some setup will be required both on the REDCap side and on the EHR side. Thus, it is
required that you find a contact person on your EHR’s technical team to work with them during the setup
process and follow the setup instructions carefully.