Java FHIR Subscriptions in Healthcare: Event-Driven Updates Without Polling (R4/R4B)
Polling clinical systems is slow, noisy, and brittle. Interfaces burn capacity on repeated checks, dashboards drift out of date, and edge cases multiply under load.
FHIR Subscriptions offer a cleaner path: publish changes as events and deliver them to the consumers that actually need them.
With Java 21, Spring Boot 3, and HAPI FHIR, a team can implement subscriptions that scale, respect privacy, and survive real hospital traffic.
This article explains when subscriptions beat polling, shows a boundary-first architecture in Java, covers consent and audit details, and finishes with a 30-day rollout plan and signals that prove the approach works.