# Brian K. Fung

> Clinician-engineer working to connect the world's healthcare data. Founder of haau3, a free app that gathers a loved one's health records in one place for caregivers, and of OpenClinTech, where I teach clinicians to build software. PharmD, MPH, CNA. Not the technology journalist of the same name.

This is Brian K. Fung's personal website (handle: briankfung). Every blog post is also available as plain markdown by appending `.md` to its URL, and the full text of all posts is at /llms-full.txt.

## About

- [Values](https://www.briankfung.com/values): The seven principles I hold myself to.
- [Learning](https://www.briankfung.com/learning): Courses and certifications, 2015 to today.
- [Projects](https://www.briankfung.com/projects): What I'm building now, and what came before.
- [Publications](https://www.briankfung.com/publications): A journal letter, a book chapter and conference posters.
- [Appearances](https://www.briankfung.com/appearances): Talks, podcasts, press and recognition.
- [Creator journey](https://www.briankfung.com/journey): Creating since 2005, on YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.
- [Pharmacy journey](https://www.briankfung.com/pharmacy-journey): Pharmacy school to informatics, health tech, caregiving and a startup.
- [FAQ](https://www.briankfung.com/faq): answers about pharmacy informatics, health tech careers, Epic and FHIR certifications
- [Contact](https://www.briankfung.com/contact): questions for his AMAs, podcast and content collaborations, speaking invitations, consulting inquiries
- [Curriculum vitae](https://cv.briankfung.com/): full CV with experience, publications, credentials (also as PDF)

## Ventures

- [haau3](https://haau3.com/): A FHIR-native, AI-powered care management solution to help caregivers focus on the human side of care.
  - [haau3 platform](https://platform.haau3.com/): Healthcare APIs built for semantic interoperability, and the data layer that powers haau3.
- [OpenClinTech](https://openclintech.com/): An open and accessible initiative to help train the next generation of clinician-engineers to solve the most complex healthcare problems.
  - [What a clinician-engineer is](https://openclintech.com/clinician-engineer)
- [Unscripted Rx](https://www.unscripted-rx.com/): A modernized, pharmacy residency directory for pharmacy students and residents to find their ideal residency, fellowship, or job.
- [Ovant](https://www.ovant.org/): A job search tool: tell it about your career once, save the jobs you want from their careers pages, and it writes a resume for each one.

## Writing

- [10.5 months of borrowed time](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/105-months-of-borrowed-time.md): In this article, I want to share some of my thoughts on being a caregiver for grandma. (2026-04-11)
- [Cheating death](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/cheating-death.md): If you knew you only had six months left to live. What would you do with your remaining time you have left? In this article, I want to share my experience of… (2025-10-25)
- [The best problems to solve are your own](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/the-best-problems-to-solve-are-your-own.md): One of the hardest parts of being a caregiver isn’t the care itself. Rather, it’s the coordination and communication involved. As I step into a full-time… (2025-07-29)
- [Thoughts on Pharmacy Informatics Board Certification](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/pharmacy-informatics-board-certification-petition.md): On July 16, 2025, the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) received a petition from the APhA and ASHP to recognize Pharmacy Informatics as a BPS specialty… (2025-07-23)
- [No Regrets](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/no-regrets.md): October 2023. A tumultuous month that will be forever engraved into my memory. It'd become the impetus for writing To Philosophize is to Learn to Die and the… (2025-06-16)
- [1.5 years of OpenClinTech](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/15-years-of-openclintech.md): As 2024 comes to a close, I'm reflecting on the progress I've made in launching OpenClinTech back in July 2023. It was my personal initiative to create… (2024-12-15)
- [Using FHIR to Optimize Clinical Artificial Intelligence](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/using-fhir-to-optimize-clinical-artificial-intelligence.md): In this article, I want to explore a few thoughts I have about training, evaluating, and deploying clinical AI, with a focus on clinical reasoning, into… (2024-08-11)
- [My Experience Cracking the HL7 FHIR Certifications (R4 & Foundation)](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/my-experience-cracking-the-hl7-fhir-certifications-r4-amp-foundation.md): Gaining proficiency in Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources has been high on my list of professional goals ever since I joined Verily in April 2022. As… (2024-08-03)
- [Building Healthcare Software as a Pharmacist](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/building-healthcare-software-as-a-pharmacist.md): I watched a TED Conferences in 2013 when I was a PGY-1 Pharmacy Resident at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System about how innovation typically happens at the… (2024-06-02)
- [Path of The Clinician Engineer](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/path-of-the-clinician-engineer.md): I've spent the vast majority of my career training to become a pharmacist, and subsequently, an informaticist. However, in the last 6 years - especially the… (2024-03-24)
- [To Philosophize is to Learn to Die](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/to-philosophize-is-to-learn-to-die.md): In the last 1.5 months, I've found myself reflecting a lot more than I usually do. I suspect it was a series of events that included deaths in my social… (2023-11-18)
- [Health Tech: The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/health-tech-the-grass-isnt-always-greener-on-the-other-side.md): Ever since I made the transition myself from the healthcare industry into tech (healthcare focused), 1.5 years ago, I've been fairly positive about my… (2023-09-24)
- [Drinking Port in Portugal - Solo Trip to Lisbon](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/drinking-port-in-portugal-solo-trip-to-lisbon.md): My reasons for visiting Lisbon are embarrassingly superficial, but I’m so glad I went through with it: to drink Port in Portugal, travel to a city I’ve never… (2023-09-16)
- [Empowering Clinicians with Technology to Solve Healthcare Problems](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/empowering-clinicians-with-technology-to-solve-healthcare-problems.md): Less than 2 weeks ago, on June 14, 2023, I graduated from the Stanford University School of Medicine's Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program on and also… (2023-06-24)
- [6 Weeks Until I Graduate Stanford's Biomedical Informatics Graduate Certificate](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/6-weeks-until-i-graduate-stanfords-biomedical-informatics-graduate-certificate.md): It feels like forever since I started my first class, BIOMEDIN260 - Data Science for Medicine, less than a year ago in September 2022. They say time flies when… (2023-04-29)
- [Why All Clinicians Should Learn to Code](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/why-all-clinicians-should-learn-tonbspcode.md): I’m an informatics pharmacist that graduated in 2013 but did my PGY-1 in Pharmacy Practice in 2013 and PGY-2 in Pharmacy Informatics in 2014. Thus, I… (2023-04-09)
- [I'm Letting Go of My BCPS (aka Pharmacy Board Certification)](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/im-letting-go-of-my-bcps-aka-pharmacy-board-certification.md): I'm letting go of my BCPS recertification this year and I have so many mixed emotions about this despite having it on the back of my mind for the last few… (2023-03-27)
- [DIGITAL DISRUPTION IN HEALTHCARE: INSIGHTS FROM A CLINICIAN IN A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/blog-post-title-one-nxlmj.md): An insightful article in NEJM Catalyst was published on March 1, 2023, by Karen DeSalvo, Chief Health Officer at Google, and Michael Howell, Chief Clinical… (2023-03-10)
- [WHAT I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP…STILL](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/what-i-want-to-be-when-i-grow-upstill.md): I spent the last 2 months engaged in conversation with an assortment of individuals about what I want to be when I grow up. Yes, I'm still trying to figure… (2023-02-22)
- [Data Science: to Pursue or not Pursue | My Experience taking Stanford's Data for Medicine Class](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/data-science-to-pursue-or-not-pursue-my-experience-taking-stanfords-data-for-medicine-class.md): Every now and then, something happens in life that dramatically alters your trajectory on where you want to go. My experience taking Stanford University School… (2022-12-10)
- [No Silver Bullet in Healthcare](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/no-silver-bullet-in-healthcare.md): On November 17, 2022, Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr., a pioneer in the computer science world and 1999 recipient of the A.M. Turing Award, passed away. I… (2022-11-19)
- [The Explosion of Mental Health Startups in 2021: Will it Continue?](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/the-explosion-of-mental-health-startups-in-2021-will-it-continue.md): LinkedIn just released their annual Top 50 startup companies to follow on September 28, 2022. As I perused through the list, I couldn’t help but notice the… (2022-10-01)
- [Academic Success breeds Mediocrity](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/academic-success-breeds-mediocrity.md): As I was reading “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel this morning, I was abruptly and uncomfortably caught by one particular sentence: “All Rhodes Scholars had a… (2022-07-23)
- [What Does a Post-Roe Era mean for Health Informatics and Patient Privacy Laws?](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/what-does-a-post-roe-era-mean-for-health-informatics-and-patient-privacy-laws.md): On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and transferred the power to each individual state to determine their own abortion laws. However… (2022-06-28)
- [Index Funds or Individual Stocks?](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/index-funds-or-individual-stocks.md): Ever since I started investing in 2013, I have been using passively managed, index funds or mutual funds (occasionally in the form of lifecycle/target… (2021-11-28)
- [Starting my Journey to FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early)](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/starting-my-journey-to-fire-financial-independence-retire-early.md): I can’t recall the exact moment it dawned on me, but it hit me like a brick when I thought of retiring at the traditional age of 65. I thought to myself… “Why… (2021-11-21)
- [Metrics for assessing physician activity using electronic health record log data | Literature Review](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/metrics-for-assessing-physician-activity-using-electronic-health-record-log-data-literature-review.md): 1. Article Title of article: Metrics for assessing physician activity using electronic health record log data Authors (full name): Sinsky, Christine A; Rule… (2021-09-17)
- [Building Informatics Competencies: A Missed Opportunity](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/building-informatics-competencies-a-missed-opportunity.md): Clinician burnout has been one of the most widely discussed public health issues ever since the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and… (2021-09-10)
- [Hopeful, but still skeptical about AI](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/hopeful-but-still-skeptical-about-ai.md): On July 23, 2021, a request for information (RFI) was published by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF)… (2021-09-02)
- [A CASE FOR INCENTIVIZING HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS TRAINING](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/a-case-for-incentivizing-healthcare-informatics-training.md): Issue In the last decade, physician burnout has quickly escalated into a major public health crisis. Burnout can be defined as a chronically distressed state… (2021-08-27)
- [Informatics Training: Why Do We Keep Missing This?](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/informatics-training-why-do-we-keep-missing-this.md): On March 9, 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) finalized a historic rule that fulfilled many of the… (2021-08-26)
- [IN THE UNITED STATES, HPV VACCINE SHOULD NOT BE AN OPT-OUT SCHOOL-BASED PROGRAM](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/in-the-united-states-hpv-vaccine-should-not-be-an-opt-out-school-based-program.md): August 23, 2021 Introduction Human papillomavirus (HPV) and its associated cancers are a serious public health threat around the globe1. In the United States… (2021-08-23)
- [Defining the Problem: Clinician Burnout](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/defining-the-problem-clinician-burnout.md): Physician burnout is a major public health crisis (Jha et al., 2018). It is estimated that 300 – 400 physicians commit suicide every year (Center et al… (2021-08-20)
- [Virally Training the Next Generation of Informaticians](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/virally-training-the-next-generation-of-informaticians.md): The adoption of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009 and specifically the inclusion of the Health Information Technology for Economic and… (2021-08-17)
- [A CASE FOR TARGETED RADON CONTROL POLICIES IN OLMSTED COUNTY](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/a-case-for-targeted-radon-control-policies-in-olmsted-county.md): In the United States, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death1–3. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers and the second leading cause… (2021-08-16)
- [WHY ARE AMERICANS STILL FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE IN 2021?](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/why-are-americans-still-financially-illiterate-in-2021.md): In my last year in pharmacy school, I had a conversation with one of my classmates about something called a Roth IRA. Apparently, it was something he just… (2021-08-12)
- [Analysis of the 21st Century Cures Act on Reducing Clinician Burden Attributable to Health Information Technology & Electronic Health Records](https://www.briankfung.com/blogs/analysis-of-the-21st-century-cures-act-on-reducing-clinician-burden-attributable-to-health-information-technology-amp-electronic-health-records.md): I. Executive summary The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act invested over $37 billion of incentives to hospitals and… (2020-05-20)

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- [Support Brian](https://www.briankfung.com/support): monthly membership tiers that keep his writing and open work free
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