Prototype Development of a FHIR-Based Electronic Patient Care Report App to Support Paramedics in Rwanda

Background: Effective documentation is essential in emergency medical services. Patient care reports with standardized assessments serve as a fundamental component in this process. Integrating these tools into the design of standardized electronic patient care reports ensures that all critical information is systematically captured and available for all subsequent medical providers. Objectives: The current work aims to develop a digitalized and standardized mobile application which covers all necessary data elements of patient care reports to support paramedics in efficient documentation in Rwanda. Methods: The development was carried out by first analyzing paper-based patient care reports and mapping the data elements to FHIR. Focus group interviews were conducted to complete the requirement analysis for app development. Results: The current work represents identified requirements and data element recommendations that were integrated into a mobile electronic patient care report prototype. Conclusion: Further field tests could be carried out to evaluate international requirements.