EHR Integration: A Technical Challenge or a People Problem?

Today, almost anyone can build a health app. Getting that app to communicate with the systems healthcare already uses is another matter entirely. In this episode, Katalin Vikuk speaks with Helena Holma, medical doctor, CEO and co-founder of Leyr, about the fragmented world of electronic health records and the hidden obstacles facing HealthTech companies trying to integrate with them. Helena explains why interoperability is not merely a technical challenge, why gatekeeping can be harder to overcome than the technology itself, and why Leyr is building a single integration layer connecting HealthTech products with multiple EHR systems. They also discuss the difficult journey from a PowerPoint presentation to a live customer, the importance of recognising which customers are genuinely committed, the dangers of providing unpaid consultancy, and why understanding healthcare’s financial incentives often comes down to one simple principle: follow the money. About Helena Holma Helena Holma is a medical doctor, specialist in internal medicine, and CEO and co-founder of Leyr. After working clinically for ten years at a large emergency hospital in Stockholm, she moved into HealthTech and experienced first-hand how difficult it was to connect new digital products with electronic health records. Leyr provides a unified API that allows HealthTech companies to connect their products with multiple EHRs, EMRs and patient-journal systems without building and maintaining every integration separately. Chapters 00:00 From medical doctor to HealthTech founder 02:11 Discovering the hidden complexity of healthcare 03:50 Who pays for EHR integration? 05:42 Leyr’s customers and use cases 06:51 Anyone can build a health app—but can it enter healthcare? 07:27 The fragmented EHR landscape 08:26 Building one API for multiple EHR systems 10:30 Leyr’s two-sided market challenge 11:45 Operating across Nordic healthcare markets 12:27 The European Health Data Space 13:19 From PowerPoint to the first live customer 14:37 Why integration is not merely a technical problem 16:25 Knowing when to cut your losses 16:54 Antler, bootstrapping and the need for funding 18:37 The shortage of soft funding for Swedish HealthTech 20:11 The most important number Helena tracks 20:40 Decisions that slowed Leyr down 21:21 The danger of unpaid consultancy 22:07 The founder mindset: trying one more time 23:19 The interoperability blind spot nobody discusses 24:25 Fundraising and Leyr’s global opportunity 25:43 Founder advice and following the money Resources mentioned Leyr: https://leyr.io/ Connect with Helena Holma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenaholma/ Antler: https://www.antler.co/ General Data Protection Regulation — official text: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng European Health Data Space — European Commission overview: https://health.ec.europa.eu/ehealth-digital-health-and-care/european-health-data-space-regulation-ehds_en About Walk the Valley Walk the Valley explores what happens between promising healthcare innovation and real-world adoption. Through candid conversations with founders, investors, experts and operators, we examine the regulatory, clinical and commercial obstacles that determine which innovations reach patients. Subscribe for more conversations from inside healthcare’s valley of death. Host: Katalin Vikuk Guest: Helena Holma Produced by: Walk the Valley Walk the Valley is a PsychWiser project. This conversation is intended for general information and reflects the speakers’ experiences and understanding at the time of recording. It does not constitute legal, regulatory or investment advice.