Integration architecture

ModMed Podiatry Integration: API and EMA Web Automation for Podiatry-Specific Workflows

MedReception AI integrates with ModMed Podiatry (EMA Podiatry plus Practice Management) through a dual-channel architecture, FHIR R4 REST endpoints for read and write of clinical and scheduling resources, plus EMA web automation for podiatry-specific workflows that the API does not yet cover (wound-care recurring booking, DME order intake, custom orthotic vendor coordination, photo-upload handoffs). This page documents the technical contract our AI receptionist uses against a podiatry practice's ModMed tenant.

FHIR R4 plus EMA Web Automation

ModMed Podiatry Footprint

2,100

US podiatry practices on EMA Podiatry plus PM (DPM solo, multi-doc groups, hospital-employed)

Visit-Type Coverage

Podiatry visit-types mapped (new, follow-up, wound-care, DME, orthotic cast, post-op, diabetic foot)

Wound-Care Recurring

Auto

Weekly or biweekly recurring debridement series booked end to end without front desk

Transport

FHIR + EMA

FHIR R4 REST primary, headless EMA web automation for gaps

Product overview

What ModMed Podiatry Actually Is

ModMed Podiatry is the specialty-tuned build of ModMed's EMA (Electronic Medical Assistant) platform paired with ModMed Practice Management for scheduling and billing. It is one of the most heavily adopted EHRs in US podiatry, deployed across solo DPM offices, multi-provider podiatry groups, and hospital-employed podiatry departments. Knowing which deployment shape a practice runs changes how we map visit-types, location pickers, and wound-care templates.

Solo DPM and Small Group Practices

Single location, one to three providers, one schedule block per day
Visit-type list usually condensed to about 8 podiatry options
Wound-care often interleaved with general podiatry, no separate clinic
DME (boots, braces, off-loading) fulfilled in office, immediate dispense
Orthotic vendor relationship usually single lab (e.g. Northwest, ProLab)

Multi-Doc Podiatry Groups

Multiple DPMs, often subspecialty (sports, diabetic limb salvage, surgery)
Dedicated wound-care half-days, separate scheduling template
Provider-specific visit-type and duration overrides
DME formulary maintained at group level, requires SKU lookup
Multiple orthotic vendors, casting workflow handed off to tech

Hospital-Employed Podiatry

Podiatry slot pool inside larger system, multi-location pickers required
Wound-care often co-managed with wound-care center, dual-tag booking
Strict referral and authorization gating, captured pre-book
DME fulfillment via central supply, not in-office dispense
Medicare diabetic foot screening tied to system care-management workflow

Where MedReception AI Plugs In

Inbound and outbound voice as the front-end channel
FHIR R4 calls for slot read, patient lookup, appointment write
EMA web automation for podiatry forms not in FHIR surface
Tenant-specific YAML profile per deployment shape above
Per-visit-type duration and resource mapping in QA Tenant Registry

Integration architecture

FHIR R4 API plus EMA Web Automation

ModMed exposes a FHIR R4 endpoint per tenant (sandbox first, then production after partner onboarding). That API covers a large portion of read and write needs, but several podiatry-specific actions still require driving the EMA web client headlessly via our ECS browser fleet. The integration uses FHIR as the primary path and falls back to EMA web automation only where the API does not yet expose the required surface.

Channel 1: ModMed FHIR R4 REST

OAuth2 client-credentials per tenant, scoped to that practice
Sandbox tenant first, smoke test full read or write, then promote
Resources used: Patient, Practitioner, Schedule, Slot, Appointment, Coverage, DocumentReference
Throughput throttled to ModMed per-tenant quota, retries on 429 with exponential backoff
Bundle transactions used for atomic patient-plus-appointment creates

Channel 2: EMA Web Automation

Headless Chromium on ECS (mr-ehr fleet), credentialed login per tenant
Session keeper holds an authenticated EMA tab warm, auto-relogin on expiry
Used for DME order intake, photo upload, orthotic cast forms
Selectors anchored to EMA podiatry templates, version-tracked per tenant
One attempt cap per credential per cycle, alert on auth failure, never auto-retry

Sandbox Onboarding Sequence

1. Practice signs ModMed FHIR partner authorization, MedReception added as integration partner
2. ModMed provisions sandbox tenant with seed Patient, Slot, and Appointment resources
3. MedReception runs read smoke test against Schedule and Slot for all 18 visit-types
4. Write smoke test creates and cancels test Appointment, verifies round-trip in EMA UI
5. EMA web automation credentialed against sandbox, DME and orthotic flows captured
6. Go-live cutover, production OAuth credentials swapped in, sandbox kept for regression

Read surface

What We READ From ModMed Podiatry

The AI receptionist needs a live view of podiatry-specific scheduling state and a handful of clinical flags before it can book intelligently. These reads happen on every relevant call, cached briefly to stay under tenant rate limits, and re-validated at write time.

Podiatry Visit-Type Slots

Slot resource filtered by visit-type extension (new, follow-up, wound, DME, orthotic, post-op)
Per-provider, per-location, per-day pull with start and end windows
Duration honored from Schedule, not assumed (15, 20, 30, or 45 minute defaults vary by practice)
Slot status: free, busy, busy-tentative, busy-unavailable
Provider preference resolved before slot search, falls back to any-provider if requested

Wound-Care Recurring Schedule

Read the wound-care Schedule resource separately (often distinct template)
Identify weekly or biweekly recurring slot pattern for the next 8 weeks
Detect dedicated wound-care half-days vs interleaved with general podiatry
Honor wound-tech room availability, not just provider availability
Surface earliest contiguous series for a multi-week debridement plan

DME Order Status

EMA web read of DME order line items per patient chart
Status: ordered, pending fitting, dispensed, awaiting authorization
Used to triage inbound calls (is the boot in yet) without front-desk lookup
Insurance authorization status surfaced where ModMed records it
Tied to product code, not free text, so we can answer SKU-specific questions

Medicare / MA Diabetic-Foot Flag

Read Coverage resource, identify Medicare or Medicare Advantage payer
Cross-reference Condition resource for diabetes diagnosis codes
Surface diabetic-foot screening eligibility window (60 days minimum between)
Pre-populates visit-type recommendation for diabetic foot checks
Drives compliant intake script for therapeutic shoe (A5500) workflow

Custom Orthotic Order Status

EMA web read of orthotic lab order, status from cast taken through dispense
Vendor (Northwest, ProLab, Footmaxx, etc) parsed from order metadata
Estimated turnaround tracked per vendor, surfaced when patient asks "are my orthotics in"
Dispense visit auto-suggested once status flips to "ready to dispense"
Casting visit and dispense visit linked so we never double-book a slot pair

Write surface

What We WRITE To ModMed Podiatry

Writes are the surface where mistakes are expensive, so every write is preceded by a read-verify and followed by a post-write read to confirm the resource actually landed in ModMed (not just acknowledged by the API). EMA web writes are double-verified by re-pulling the chart view after submit.

Appointments With Visit-Type

Appointment create against the correct podiatry visit-type extension
Provider, location, slot, duration all sourced from Schedule (no guessing)
Patient resolved or created via Patient.search first, never blind-create
Post-write read confirms appointment status is booked and time matches
Friendly confirmation read back to caller with provider, time, and location

Wound-Care Recurring Booking

Series of N appointments created in a single FHIR Bundle transaction
Same provider, same room, same weekday across the series where possible
Atomic, all-or-nothing, never partial series that leaves gaps in plan of care
Series tagged with shared identifier so cancel-one vs cancel-series is explicit
Verbal confirmation lists every date in the series before write commits

DME Order Intake

EMA web automation submits DME order form on behalf of provider
Product code (e.g. L4360 walking boot) chosen from tenant formulary
Patient insurance pre-checked, prior auth flag surfaced when required
Order routed to in-office dispense vs central supply per deployment shape
Order ID captured and read back into the call, also persisted in QA transcript

Intake Forms

Intake link generated via intake.medreception.ai, scoped to that appointment
DL plus insurance card upload landing page branded per practice
Form completion writes back as DocumentReference attached to Patient
EMA chart shows intake docs in expected tab on the day of visit
Reminders sent if intake not completed 24 hours pre-visit

Photo-Upload Coordination

Wound or nail photo capture often requested pre-visit for triage
Patient receives SMS link to secure upload form, no app install
Uploaded image written to ModMed via DocumentReference with wound-care tag
EMA web fallback used where DocumentReference attach is not yet on FHIR for the tenant
Photo presence surfaced to provider at start of visit, no post-hoc upload chase

Podiatry-specific configuration

Per-Tenant Podiatry Configuration

ModMed Podiatry deployments differ enough that we maintain a per-tenant configuration profile in the QA Tenant Registry. The profile captures wound clinic vs general podiatry slot rules, DME formulary, orthotic vendor coordination, and provider preference defaults. Without this profile the AI would technically book correctly but not respect the clinical reality of the practice.

Wound Clinic vs General Podiatry

Dedicated wound half-day mapping (Tue and Thu AM is common)
Interleaved tenants flagged so wound slots resolve from general schedule
Wound tech room requirement enforced where applicable
Wound-care recurring pattern (weekly or biweekly) captured per tenant
Crossover rules: wound visit converted to general if wound day full

DME Formulary

Tenant-specific list of approved DME SKUs and product codes
Boots, off-loading wedges, ankle braces, walker boots, post-op shoes
In-office dispense flag vs central supply routing
Prior-auth required map by SKU and payer
Driven by simple YAML, easy to update without code change

Orthotic Vendor Coordination

Single-vendor vs multi-vendor practice flag
Per-vendor turnaround days for "are they in yet" answers
Cast or scan workflow (foam, plaster, 3D scan) captured for visit setup
Dispense visit duration override (often longer than follow-up)
Vendor-specific paperwork queued via EMA web automation

Medicare workflow

Medicare Diabetic Foot Screening Handoffs

Diabetic foot screening is one of the highest-stakes podiatry workflows, both clinically and from a Medicare billing standpoint. The AI receptionist treats it as a first-class flow: it identifies eligibility, books the correct visit-type, captures the right intake data, and hands off cleanly to the provider with all of the relevant clinical context already in the chart.

Eligibility Identification

Coverage plus Condition reads identify Medicare or MA patients with diabetes diagnosis. Last diabetic-foot screening date pulled, 60-day eligibility window calculated, eligibility surfaced to caller proactively.

Read once, drive whole call

Correct Visit-Type Booking

Diabetic-foot screening booked against the dedicated visit-type, not a generic follow-up. Duration and resource (monofilament, vibration test setup) match the screening template, billing codes line up out of the gate.

Right code, right slot

Provider Handoff

Intake form pre-populated with last A1c, current footwear, neuropathy symptoms, and ulcer history. Provider opens the chart at visit start with the screening template already attached, no manual lookup required.

Zero-friction provider open

Voice receptionist

AI Receptionist on ModMed Podiatry

See the full caller-facing product purpose-built for ModMed Podiatry practices: voice flow, scripts, hours of coverage, wound-care language, DME triage, and Medicare diabetic-foot routing.

ModMed Podiatry Receptionist

Wound-care deep dive

Wound-Care Recurring Booking Workflow

Step-by-step look at the wound-care recurring booking workflow: how the slot pattern is detected, how the series is committed atomically, and how cancel-one vs cancel-series is handled cleanly.

Wound-Care Workflow

Related integration pages