Research sites with large EHR populations
Reducing the first-pass chart-review burden when manual screening across thousands of records is impractical.
Independent tool overview
HealthKey at a glance
HealthKey is an active business-to-business platform that connects to a clinical site's EHR and uses AI to prescreen patient records against clinical-trial inclusion and exclusion criteria. It now focuses on patient identification for research teams rather than the broad medical-record simplification described in its older directory listing. The product can narrow large chart populations and surface supporting evidence, but trained research staff must verify every criterion, privacy authority, contact decision, and final eligibility judgment.
Visit the official HealthKey site ↗
- Product type
- AI clinical-trial patient prescreening
- Current status
- Active
- Primary customer
- Clinical research sites and site networks
- Primary data source
- Connected electronic health records
- Primary output
- Potential patient matches with chart evidence
- Protocol handling
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria encoded for screening
- Human role
- Research staff must verify candidates and eligibility
- Public integrations
- Multiple major ambulatory and enterprise EHRs listed
- Compliance claim
- Vendor describes the workflow as HIPAA compliant
- Current pricing
- Quote required; success-fee model advertised
- Consumer product
- No; this is a site-facing research workflow
- Reviewed
- August 31, 2026
Overview
What HealthKey is
HealthKey's current product is AI-powered patient identification for clinical-trial sites. A research team supplies a protocol, HealthKey connects to the site's EHR, encodes eligibility criteria, scans structured and unstructured records, and returns potential matches with supporting chart evidence.
This is a substantial change from the older description of HealthKey as a general tool for simplifying medical records. The active gethealthkey.com service is not a consumer health-record app and should not be confused with unrelated products using the HealthKey name on other domains.
Public materials list integrations with Epic, athenahealth, Veradigm Allscripts, NextGen, eClinicalWorks, Modernizing Medicine EMA, MEDENT, UroChart, iSalus, MediTab, Practice Fusion, Office Ally, and Greenway. Actual connectivity, implementation scope, and data mapping require vendor and EHR confirmation.
HealthKey publishes customer case studies in which its system processed structured fields, clinical notes, PDFs, medication histories, laboratory results, and other records, then surfaced full matches and near matches. These are vendor-authored reports, not independent validation of sensitivity, specificity, fairness, or performance on a new site's population.
The homepage says HealthKey uses success fees per patient and previously promoted zero upfront cost, free implementation, five protocol setups, and premium support through July 31, 2026. That date has passed, so current pricing and contract terms are not publicly established and require a quote.
Use cases
Who HealthKey is best for
The strongest fit depends on the job you need the product to complete, not the size of its feature list.
Complex eligibility protocols
Finding candidate evidence spread across diagnoses, medications, labs, procedures, clinical notes, and imported documents.
Multi-site research networks
Applying a defined protocol across several connected practices while preserving local human qualification and outreach controls.
Trials with stalled enrollment
Rechecking a site's existing population for overlooked potential candidates without treating an algorithmic match as enrollment.
Protocol feasibility work
Estimating likely candidate volume after validating data completeness, terminology, timing windows, and site-specific documentation patterns.
Coordinator evidence review
Presenting the chart passages and fields behind a potential match so trained staff can confirm or reject each criterion.
Capabilities
Core HealthKey features
EHR integration
Connects to a clinical site's record system to analyze its patient population.
Protocol ingestion
Uses uploaded inclusion and exclusion criteria as the basis for a screening configuration.
Criteria translation
Converts protocol requirements into logic that can be evaluated against available records.
Structured-data screening
Reviews diagnoses, medications, laboratory values, procedures, encounters, and other coded fields described in vendor cases.
Unstructured-record review
Processes clinical notes, reports, and PDFs where relevant eligibility evidence may be buried.
Population-scale prescreening
Evaluates large numbers of charts more quickly than sequential manual review.
Evidence-linked matches
Returns supporting record evidence so coordinators can inspect why a patient was surfaced.
Near-match handling
Vendor case studies describe candidates with unresolved or borderline criteria being routed for manual judgment.
Repeated screening
The homepage says sites can receive newly eligible patient candidates as records change.
Research-team dashboard
Provides a site-facing interface for reviewing candidate results and supporting information.
Multi-EHR support
Lists compatibility with a range of enterprise and specialty practice systems.
Implementation support
The vendor advertises connection and initial setup assistance, with exact obligations determined by contract.
Customer case studies
Publishes detailed examples covering trial criteria, record volumes, surfaced candidates, and enrollment outcomes.
Process
How the HealthKey workflow works
Step 1
Define the authorized use
Document the specific trial, site, patient population, data elements, legal basis, and approved prescreening purpose.
Step 2
Complete governance review
Obtain privacy, security, compliance, IRB or Privacy Board, sponsor, and EHR approvals applicable to the deployment.
Step 3
Contract the data handling
Review the BAA or other required agreement, retention, subprocessors, incident duties, access controls, audit rights, deletion, and model-training terms.
Step 4
Validate the current protocol
Use the approved version and record every amendment, temporal window, cohort distinction, and site interpretation.
Step 5
Map available EHR data
Confirm terminology, units, source provenance, missingness, scanned-document coverage, latency, and patient identity resolution.
Step 6
Encode and inspect criteria
Have qualified clinical and research staff verify the operational logic for every inclusion and exclusion requirement.
Step 7
Run a retrospective pilot
Test against known cases and failures before allowing prospective candidate lists to influence outreach.
Step 8
Measure performance by subgroup
Assess false negatives, false positives, unresolved criteria, data gaps, and disparities across relevant demographic and clinical groups.
Step 9
Prescreen the authorized population
Run the reviewed configuration only against records and sites included in the approved scope.
Step 10
Review evidence manually
A trained coordinator or investigator should inspect the cited chart evidence and original source before classifying a candidate.
Step 11
Resolve uncertain criteria
Treat missing, conflicting, stale, or ambiguous data as unresolved rather than silently passing a patient.
Step 12
Control patient contact
Follow the approved recruitment and privacy process; an algorithmic match is not permission for arbitrary outreach.
Step 13
Complete formal screening and consent
Use the protocol's human screening, clinical assessment, and informed-consent process before enrollment.
Step 14
Audit and monitor
Log decisions, overrides, configuration changes, access, outcomes, complaints, and drift, and revalidate after protocol or EHR changes.
Cost
HealthKey pricing and free plan
HealthKey does not publish a current rate card. Its homepage describes success fees per patient, but the visible zero-upfront-cost and free-services promotion was explicitly valid only through July 31, 2026 and is no longer current as of this review. Request a written quote covering what event triggers a fee.
Clinical site deployment
Contact sales
Current commercial terms are negotiated rather than listed as a fixed software subscription.
- Success-fee-per-patient model advertised
- Confirm whether the trigger is identification, contact, consent, screen pass, enrollment, or another milestone
- Confirm implementation and protocol setup fees
- Confirm minimums, caps, support, integrations, and data-export costs
Expired July 2026 promotion
No longer current
The homepage still displays an offer that was valid through July 31, 2026.
- Advertised $0 upfront cost
- Advertised free implementation
- Advertised setup for five trials
- Advertised premium support
- Do not assume any of these terms remain available
Pricing checked . Check current pricing at the source ↗
Assessment
HealthKey strengths and limitations
Where it stands out
- Targets a specific, costly clinical-research workflow
- Can search far more charts than a coordinator can manually review in the same period
- Uses structured and unstructured record evidence
- Returns supporting evidence rather than only an unexplained score
- Can surface near matches for human judgment
- Lists integrations with many commonly used EHRs
- May help sites revisit overlooked candidates in existing populations
- Supports repeated screening as records and trial status change
- Vendor case studies disclose protocols, criteria counts, record volumes, and outcomes
- A success-based commercial model may align some vendor and site incentives
- Can free coordinators to focus on verification, contact, and consent
- Works as a prescreening layer rather than claiming to replace formal eligibility review
What to consider
- The directory's old medical-record simplification description no longer reflects the current product
- No current public rate card is available
- The visible zero-upfront promotion expired before this review
- The exact event that triggers a success fee is not publicly defined
- Public HIPAA-compliance language is a vendor claim, not a complete site compliance determination
- No public privacy policy, security white paper, BAA, retention schedule, or subprocessor list was located during this review
- Vendor case studies are not independent validation studies
- Published cases do not establish sensitivity, specificity, precision, recall, or subgroup performance
- Missing, delayed, miscoded, conflicting, or scanned EHR data can change candidate results
- Protocol language can be ambiguous and may require investigator interpretation
- A false negative can hide a potentially eligible patient
- A false positive can waste coordinator time or lead to inappropriate contact
- Eligibility can depend on examinations, tests, diaries, imaging, or facts not present in the connected record
- An algorithmic prescreen is not a final eligibility decision
- An algorithmic match is not patient consent to research or outreach
- Research use or disclosure of protected health information requires a valid legal and governance basis
- Selection errors or biased data can worsen underrepresentation in trials
- Success-fee incentives need safeguards against pressure to over-contact or overstate fit
- Protocol amendments and EHR mapping changes can invalidate previously tested rules
- Bulk access to sensitive medical records creates substantial breach and insider-access risk
- Sites need audit logs, least-privilege access, deletion controls, incident procedures, and ongoing monitoring
- The product is not intended for consumers seeking medical advice or treatment recommendations
Compare
HealthKey alternatives
The right alternative depends on the specific output, workflow, controls and budget your project requires.
Healthcare
ChatGPT for Clinicians
An adjacent clinician-focused assistant for healthcare work, not a substitute for validated EHR-wide trial prescreening.
Explore ChatGPT for Clinicians →Healthcare
CompliantChatGPT
A healthcare-oriented AI workspace for general assistance where clinical-trial matching is not the primary need.
Explore CompliantChatGPT →Healthcare
Docus
A patient-facing health decision-support product rather than a research-site recruitment system.
Explore Docus →Healthcare
Health in ChatGPT
A personal health conversation and data experience for individuals, not an EHR population-screening platform for trial sites.
Explore Health in ChatGPT →Questions
HealthKey FAQs
What is HealthKey?
HealthKey is a business-to-business AI platform that prescreens a clinical site's EHR population against clinical-trial inclusion and exclusion criteria and surfaces potential matches with supporting evidence.
Is HealthKey still a medical-record summarization tool?
Its older directory description emphasized simplifying medical records, but the current gethealthkey.com product is positioned specifically around clinical-trial patient identification.
Who is HealthKey for?
It is aimed at clinical research sites, practices, and site networks. It is not presented as a consumer medical-record or self-diagnosis app.
How does HealthKey work?
The vendor connects to an EHR, translates a trial's approved eligibility criteria into screening logic, scans relevant records, and returns potential candidates with supporting chart evidence for staff review.
Which EHRs does HealthKey support?
The public site lists Epic, athenahealth, Veradigm Allscripts, NextGen, eClinicalWorks, Modernizing Medicine EMA, MEDENT, UroChart, iSalus, MediTab, Practice Fusion, Office Ally, and Greenway. Confirm the exact version and integration scope.
Does HealthKey decide who can join a clinical trial?
No. It supports prescreening. Trained research staff and investigators must verify the protocol criteria, complete required assessments, and follow the approved consent and enrollment process.
Can HealthKey contact patients automatically?
The public site focuses on identifying candidates, not establishing universal permission to contact them. Each site must follow its approved privacy, IRB, recruitment, and patient-communication process.
Is HealthKey HIPAA compliant?
HealthKey describes its EHR analysis as HIPAA compliant. A customer's obligations still depend on the actual data flow, agreements, safeguards, authorization or waiver basis, access, retention, and use.
How much does HealthKey cost?
Current prices are not published. The site describes success fees per patient, while its displayed zero-upfront promotion expired July 31, 2026. Request a written quote and exact fee trigger.
What should a HealthKey contract define?
It should clearly define the fee event, implementation, integrations, support, data use, model training, retention, deletion, subprocessors, incident response, audit rights, performance obligations, exports, and termination.
How accurate is HealthKey?
The vendor publishes positive customer cases, but this review found no public independent validation establishing general sensitivity, specificity, precision, recall, or subgroup performance. Each site should run its own controlled validation.
Why is human review still necessary?
Trial criteria often depend on clinical nuance, time windows, conflicting notes, missing data, and assessments outside the EHR. Evidence must be checked against the source record and current protocol.
What are the main risks?
The main risks are privacy or access failures, incorrect criteria encoding, missing or stale data, false negatives, false positives, biased selection, inappropriate outreach, and treating prescreening as final eligibility.
Does a HealthKey match mean a patient has consented?
No. A match is only an internal prescreening signal. Informed consent is a separate process in which a potential participant receives and understands balanced information and voluntarily decides whether to join.
How should a site validate HealthKey?
Use an approved retrospective sample with known outcomes, review every rule, measure false positives and negatives by relevant subgroup, investigate misses, confirm access controls, and repeat testing after protocol, model, or EHR changes.
Bottom line
Our HealthKey verdict
HealthKey addresses a real bottleneck: finding a small number of plausible trial candidates inside large, messy EHR populations. Its evidence-linked prescreening could save meaningful coordinator time, but the stakes are too high for automation-only use. A serious deployment needs current commercial terms, a full privacy and security review, site-specific performance validation, subgroup monitoring, documented human verification, and a recruitment process that keeps consent and clinical judgment firmly with people.
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