Am I right in thinking that the "office id" is an overarching ID, which can be associated with multiple practices?

Yes, that's correct. To get the list of practice IDs or practices associated with "office_id", use the 'practices' API call. it will give you a list of practices with "practice_id"


API & Data Can Impact Your Enterprise In A Big Way


API Portal Customer Count

The customer count is the sum of all registration forms submitted for the partner. This count is cumulative and does not decrease when an account is canceled. This is not a representation of active, installed, or billed clients. The number represents registrations only. 

 

Are you in contact with the different PIMS editors? While we understand that the content of the db is owned by the clinic, is there a risk that the editor voids the warranty of our users for unauthorized use of their system?

We developed this from human health and so have a full suite of privacy and safety.  In our years of operations, we have never run into the issues that you are outlining and do not anticipate issues in the future.  The data belongs to the clinic.  Many companies who own the PIMS are also working with us directly or have licensed our platform.


Can we use the App ID and App Secret Key for testing?

Yes. You can use your application id and application key assigned to you. It is in the API portal. 


Can you confirm for me that the 'transactions' endpoint works with all software?

Yes, it works for all Sikka-compatible Practice Management Systems. To get the list please contact us at support@sikkasoftware.com

Can you provide us with test office ids and secret keys?

 

Yes, we do. It is in the API portal. Log into your account and check.

[Note: For SMB and Enterprise we would suggest please give us any beta member from your customer list. We will install SPU there and you can test our APIs on real data.]



Do you standardize the fields across the practice management software? For example, in the docs, I see “first name” used to indicate the patient's first name. Is this your data type or is it straight out of the practice management software?

Yes, we normalize the Practice Management System data.


Does the SPC do a cloud dump of the DB at regular intervals or does the API communicate directly with the SPC?

SPC reads every night at 2 am local time.  The cloud and the API are available for you 24/7. 

SPC can be configured to extract data at 15 min ( minimum ) intervals based on your API license. 



From a business model perspective, we pay for access to the data via the Sikka Software cloud….how does this work from the veterinarian’s perspective? I suspect they pay for the middleware/support. What does the model look like here?

Our primary customer is the practice as they "own" the data in their practice management system and they must agree to us accessing their data.  The access and charging can happen through multiple paths as you will have some practices that are already on the platform and just have to approve your application and others that do not yet have the platform installed and also must install and approve your application.


1. A customer wants their pet's medical information downloaded to your app from their vet:  They agree to your EULA, send a request to their vet to download a  free app, eg practice mobilizer, and the vet agrees to our EULA.   You pay Sikka an install and monthly fee, the vet does not pay.   You need to determine what to charge the customer if anything.


2. Vet purchases and downloads a Sikka app such as Optimizer Classic that they pay for, they have a free app inside Optimizer Classic that they just click on your application once they receive a request from a client approving the release of their information and they agree to release info to your application.   The vet is paying for Optimizer Classic, you are paying Sikka when the vet downloads the app -install.


How is the SPC configured to link with the PIMS? Does it vary from PIMS to PIMS? We would like to understand the whole client experience in order to have an idea of what kind of support will be required. Moreover, where is the data stored?

Once SPC is installed, it will be configured by itself.

Data is stored in the cloud. SPC upload the data at regular interval. API directly communicates with cloud data uploaded by SPC.

SPC reads every night at 2 am local time.  The cloud and the API are available for you 24/7



I need to create a webhook. What should I put in the callback key field?

The callback key is for your web server security. If you mention a callback key, we do call your API with that key so your server identifies that the request is coming from a trusted source.

I tried the loaded_startdate and loaded_enddate stuff that you sent from the API docs. However, I'm not able to get them to work in our demo environment using the API testing tool (or using my own requests)

In case you do not want to load a bunch of data; using 'loaded_startdate' and 'loaded_enddate' you can get only records changed between that duration. This will improve your app performance.

It should give you the changes that have occurred in the window of time between loaded_startdate and loaded_enddate


If we need to access all healthcare practices in a certain area (say NY), how do we get this information?

No. Right now we do allow filtering practices by timezone only in 'authorized_practices'


Is there any other way to get bulk data for the authorized practices?

It will be good if we can discuss what task you want to accomplish based on that we can suggest best practices that other partners are following to access large amounts of data. You can write your comments below. 

Is there an API to request bulk data?

No. There is no API for bulk data. Sikka API is very chatty so you can access particular objects with filters.

Sikka API allows you to access max. 5000 records in one API call.

Once we get the practice id, do we use individual API by using this practice id one at a time?

Yes. You can. But 'practice_id' is optional. To access practice data you will need 'request_key' which is tied to 'office_id'.



The response of the callback will contain all the fields that are on the transactions endpoint in Sikka API?

 No, the response will contain 

  

{

    "event": "transaction",

    "office_id": "D18620",

    "practice_id": "1",

    "generated_time": "2019-03-14 15:42:42"

}

See here: https://apidocs.sikkasoft.com/#webhooks


The transactions webhook is a general endpoint or a practice-based one?

It is a general endpoint. When a transaction happens in particular practice 'transaction' event is triggered and lets your server knows with the office id.


We would have liked to set up a mock clinic and test directly the system that way. Could you provide us with a copy of one of your partner's PIMS to do so?

We do not provide this.  However, if you wish to install it on a real practice who is your customer then we are happy to do that. Our support team will help you. You can submit a request at support@sikkasoftware.com

 

What is Sikka API?

 

Sikka API provides access to over 96% of dental, veterinary and optometry industries so you can quickly build secure apps. Those apps are included in the Sikka Marketplace. The Sikka Ecosystem harnesses the power of over 36 unique apps for you to gain full control of your practice while viewing real-time industry metrics, securely - all at your fingertips!

 


What’s your hospital-side architecture (looking for a top-level view)? – I would assume you have an extraction service/stub that reads data off the PIM database, sends it to your servers, and that’s what’s then exposed by the API.

We have SPC (i.e. Sikka Platform Cloud). SPC needs to be installed at practice.

SPC contains ETL, which extracts data from PIMS and then uploads securely on our servers. APIs use that extracted data.

 

For more information: Minimum System Requirements & Recommendations for Sikka Platform Cloud (SPC)?

Installing the Sikka Platform Cloud Utility

Will ‘practices’ api give us all practices or do we use ‘Authorized practices’ api to get practices that we are allowed to access?

First, you have to use the 'authorized_practices' API to get practices that you are allowed to access.

From 'authorized_practices' you will get a list of practices with office_id. Then you can use 'practices' API.


Will SPC work well for Cloud-based solutions?

Yes, it will work with Cloud-based solutions.


Within a given practice, you can have multiple providers. Or at least, providers can be associated with practices.

Yes, that's correct.  Check the "providers" API call, it will display the provider id and practice id. It will help you to understand which provider is associated with which practice id


You have talked about write-back capabilities however the API seems to only have read options. Is that because the demo API is restricted or because the write-back options are not ready?

Our write-back options are ready for major practice management systems for scheduling, appointment status, etc. It depends on the API licenses you have. Only Enterprise API licenses are authorized to use write-back APIs