The Sandbox

The Health Gorilla Sandbox is a fully functional environment designed to simulate real-world healthcare data exchanges. It allows you to build, test, and refine your applications in a safe, controlled setting without impacting live systems.

When to Use the Sandbox

All initial implementations, new employee onboarding, feature development, and third-party integrations should begin in the sandbox before transitioning to production. This approach ensures:

Your workflows are fully validated
Your team gains hands-on experience with Health Gorilla APIs and tools
Potential issues are identified early and resolved in a safe environment

Using the sandbox first minimizes errors, accelerates timelines, and ensures a smooth go-live process.

How to Access the Sandbox

Submit a request via our contact page. A member of the Health Gorilla team will follow up with next steps.
Choose Your Entry Point:

Health Gorilla UI – A user-friendly web interface for navigating the sandbox.

RESTful API – Full access for programmatic integration and automated testing.

Features

Closed System: The sandbox is a closed test environment. No emails or external messages are sent. For actions like password resets that typically require email verification, contact Health Gorilla Support.
Code Release Management: New feature releases are deployed to the sandbox first. This gives you an opportunity to test against upcoming changes before they are pushed to production.
Account Support: Need help with login or user setup? Contact Health Gorilla Support to reset passwords or manage sandbox accounts.

Querying for Clinical Records

Mock Patient Data: When you create a patient in the sandbox, the system generates realistic mock clinical data. This allows you to test workflows without handling real patient information.
Use of CCDs: Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs) are randomly assigned to sandbox patients from a predefined pool, simulating diverse and comprehensive medical histories.
API and FHIR Queries: All Health Gorilla API and FHIR query methods are fully functional in the sandbox. Test your data retrieval, parsing, and integration workflows under production-like conditions.

Using the Lab Network

Simulate Lab Orders and Results: You can place test orders with sandbox labs and receive mock results. These are not clinically valid but are designed to verify your application’s ability to handle diagnostics workflows.
Mock Results: Lab results returned in the sandbox are randomly generated and intended for development purposes only.

Best Practices

Test Everything First: Use the sandbox for all new features, user training, and integrations before moving to production.
Validate Real-World Workflows: Simulate entire workflows (e.g., patient creation → query → document download).
Follow Security Best Practices: Even in testing, protect API tokens and avoid hardcoding credentials.

By following these best practices, you can confidently build and test your Health Gorilla integration in a risk-free environment—and get ready for your production go-live.