Particle’s API Platform uses two nationwide healthcare data exchange networks, Carequality and Commonwell, to retrieve information about patients. As the US medical system involves a very heterogeneous mix of care providers and IT infrastructure, these networks enforce standardization across three areas:

  1. Technical Implementation: How to request, receive and submit patient information
  2. Legal, Trust, and Verification: One legal agreement for all members, secure infrastructure for network operation, and a verification process to allow entities to make queries
  3. Operation: Ensuring that the ongoing behavior of participants is in accordance with the legal, technical, and security guidelines set by the network

The networks differ slightly in how they choose to apply this standardization. Carequality uses a decentralized framework wherein all participants are nodes in a network and can query each other, provided that they are members in good standing and use the Carequality defined standards when making and responding to queries. Commonwell uses a hub model requiring members to submit all requests to a Commonwell-operated service, which then makes queries against member endpoints on behalf of the requester.

Particle is an active member of both networks and participates in committees related to standards definition, implementation, and deployment.