Fonteum developer documentation
Reference documentation for Fonteum's FHIR R4 provider directory API, bulk dataset exports, webhooks, and identity resolution. All surfaces consume federal primary-source data with 14-tuple chain-of-custody provenance.
Reviewed by Dr. Jennifer Montecillo, MD, non-practicing medical reviewer. Last reviewed: June 2026 · Next review: December 2026
APIs
HL7 FHIR R4 US Core 6.1.0 — Practitioner, Organization, Location, PractitionerRole, HealthcareService. Da Vinci PDex + SMART Backend Services.
- Researcher APIStable
Free .edu/.gov tier for academic and government researchers. Citation spec, rate limits, and authentication.
- Provider searchStable
Natural-language semantic provider search. NPI lookup, specialty filter, and location-based queries.
Data access
- Bulk data exportStable
Gzip-compressed NDJSON exports for all 14-plus federal source families. Manifest at /api/v1/bulk/manifest.json.
- Dataset discoveryStable
DCAT-US 3.0 catalog and Google Dataset Search submission documentation for all Fonteum datasets.
CMS Medicare Inpatient utilization reference — 10th source family. Hospital Performance dataset equivalent, free.
CMS Medicare Outpatient utilization reference — 11th source family.
Identity + provenance
NPI ↔ PECOS-ID canonical identity layer. Cross-source entity resolution and chain attestation.
- ORCID integrationStable
ORCID iD linkage for researcher authentication and citation attribution.
- Provenance contractStable
14-tuple chain-of-custody specification. Field definitions, Ed25519 attestation, and witness co-signatures.
- Chain attestationStable
Ed25519 chain link hashing and snapshot witness signature scheme.
Events + integrations
- WebhooksStable
Subscribe to HMAC-SHA256-signed provider events. LEIE and PECOS state changes delivered to your endpoint.
- Citation discoveryStable
Automated AI citation detection and citation chain monitoring for published research studies.
Operations
- Scheduled jobs referenceStable
Complete inventory of all Fonteum cron jobs and Inngest functions with schedules and ownership.
- Cache policy referenceStable
ISR revalidation windows, CDN caching strategy, and per-dataset freshness policies.
Documentation FAQ
What documentation does Fonteum publish?
Fonteum publishes developer documentation for its FHIR R4 provider directory API (US Core 6.1.0, Da Vinci PDex), bulk NDJSON dataset export, provider event webhooks, federated NPI-PECOS identity resolution, and reference guides for all 14-plus federal healthcare data source families.
Which FHIR implementation guides does Fonteum support?
Fonteum's FHIR R4 API conforms to US Core 6.1.0, the Da Vinci PDex Provider Directory IG, and the HL7 FHIR Bulk Data Access v2.0.0 implementation guide. All five USCDI v3 Provider resources are enumerated in the CapabilityStatement at /api/fhir/metadata.
How do I access Fonteum bulk healthcare datasets?
Bulk datasets are available as gzip-compressed NDJSON files. The manifest at /api/v1/bulk/manifest.json enumerates all available datasets with download URLs, schema descriptions, and provenance metadata. See /docs/bulk-export for the complete download guide.
What is the rate limit for the Fonteum API?
Anonymous reads support 60 requests per minute per IP. SMART Backend Services authenticated requests allow 600 requests per minute per client_id. Bulk $export jobs are limited to 1 concurrent job per client_id. Requests above limits return HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header.
Does Fonteum provide provenance metadata in API responses?
Yes. Every FHIR resource carries a 14-tuple provenance chain in meta.tag using Fonteum's provenance CodeSystem. The 14 fields include source dataset ID, agency, snapshot date, reporting period, methodology version, entity ID, field name, raw value hash, chain link hash, and attested-at timestamp.