SMART on FHIR OAuth 2.0 scopes supported by HealthLake
HealthLake uses OAuth 2.0 as an authorization protocol. Using this protocol on your authorization server allows you to define what FHIR resources in your HealthLake data store a client application can have read and/or write access too.
The SMART on FHIR framework defines a set of scopes that can be requested from the
authorization server. To view the scope definitions in the SMART on FHIR framework, see
SMART on FHIR Scopes
For example, a client application that is only designed to allow patients to view their
lab results or view their contact details should only be authorized to
request (via FHIR REST request) read scopes. To define these as scope you would
provide a string like the following patient/Observation.read. This would allow
the client application to request access to the Observation resource type in a
read-only manner on the Patient resource type.
Standalone launch scope
HealthLake supports the standalone launch mode scope launch/patient.
In standalone launch mode a client application requests access to patient's clinical data because the user and patient are not known to the client application. Thus, the client application's authorization request explicitly requests the patient scope be returned. After successful authentication, the authorization server issues a access token containing the requested launch patient scope. The needed patient context is provided alongside the access token in the authorization server's response.
| Scope | Description |
|---|---|
|
A parameter in a OAuth 2.0 authorization request requesting that patient data be returned in the authorization response. |
HealthLake data store FHIR resource specific scopes
HealthLake defines three levels of scopes.
-
Patient-specific scopes grant access to specific data about a single patient. Which patient is specified in the launch context.
-
User-level scopes grant access to specific data that a user can access.
-
System-level scopes grant read/write access to all FHIR resource found in the HealthLake data store.
The following table shows the syntax for constructing FHIR resource related scopes that are supported by HealthLake. The general format is the following:
( 'patient' | 'user' | 'system' ) '/' ( fhir-resource | '*' ) '.' ( 'read' | 'write' | '*' )
| Scope syntax | Example scope | Result |
|---|---|---|
|
patient/AllergyIntolerance.* |
A client application would have read/write access to allergies. |
|
user/Observation.read |
A client application would have read access to all recorded observations. |
system/('read' | 'write' | *) |
system/*.* |
A client application would have read/write access to all data. |
