Fasten Health alternatives: where to keep your records now
Fasten OnPrem stopped connecting to health systems and was archived in 2026. What still works, how to keep your records, and the options that remain.
| HealthViewer | Fasten OnPrem | Mere Medical | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Active | Archived July 18, 2026; no longer developed | Maintained by one developer |
| Runs on | Mac and Windows | Self-hosted server (Docker); Mac App Store app | Web browser, installable as an app; self-host with Docker |
| Price | $24.99 once, after a 7-day free trial | Free to self-host; Mac app $49.99 | Free, open source (MIT) |
| Lab PDF import | Yes, plus CSV, FHIR JSON, and MyChart (C-CDA) files | No; manual entry or FHIR bundle upload | No |
| Patient portal connections | Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth, eClinicalWorks (US) | Removed in February 2026 | Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth, eClinicalWorks (Healow), NextGen, Veradigm, and others |
| Where your data lives | Encrypted file on your computer | Your own server or Mac | Your browser; encryption optional |
| Account | None | A login on your own install | None |
Fasten OnPrem was the best-known open-source personal health record you could run yourself. If you used it, you have probably noticed that it no longer pulls anything new from your health systems. This page covers what happened, what still works, and where to go next. We make HealthViewer, one of the options below, so we say where the others are the better fit.
What happened to Fasten OnPrem
On February 7, 2026, the maintainer announced that Fasten OnPrem would “no longer support direct medical record retrieval from EHR systems”. Retrieval moved to Fasten Connect, the company’s paid service for developers, and the open-source app became a storage and viewing tool for data you already had.
On July 18, 2026, the repository was archived. It is now read-only, so no further fixes or security updates are coming. The Mac App Store version is still listed at $49.99 but has not been updated since mid-2024.
Do you need to move right away?
Not urgently. Records already in your Fasten install are still there, and the app still opens them. The two reasons to move are:
- Nothing new comes in. Without provider connections, every new result has to be entered by hand or uploaded as a FHIR bundle you got some other way.
- No more updates. An archived server app that holds your medical history will not get security fixes. If your instance is reachable from outside your home network, take it off the internet while you decide.
Getting your records out
The announcement does not describe an export, and we could not find one in Fasten’s documentation. Two practical routes:
- Keep the FHIR bundles you uploaded. If you added data to Fasten by uploading FHIR bundle files, those files are the cleanest copy you have. Keep them somewhere safe. HealthViewer imports the lab results and medications from FHIR R4 JSON bundles, and other FHIR tools can read them too.
- Go back to the source. Your health systems still hold your records. Connecting a new app to the same patient portals gets you a fresh copy, often with more history than Fasten had. How to get all of your medical records covers requesting the complete record, beyond what the portal shows.
The options
Mere Medical is the closest match to what Fasten was. It is free, open source, and local-first, with no account, and you can run it yourself with Docker or use it in the browser. It connects to Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, and other portals, and it charts lab results over time. It has no lab PDF import, it keeps data in your browser’s storage, encrypted only if you turn on a password, and one developer maintains it. If open source and self-hosting were why you chose Fasten, start here.
HealthViewer is a desktop app for Mac and Windows. Like Fasten, it keeps your records on hardware you own, but with no server to run: everything is in one encrypted file on your computer, and there is no account. It connects directly to Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth, and eClinicalWorks portals in the US, and it also reads lab PDFs from Quest, Labcorp, and others, CSV files, MyChart downloads, and FHIR JSON bundles. Each person gets their own profile, so you can keep a family’s records the way Fasten did. It is $24.99 once, after a 7-day free trial. It is not open source, there is no phone app, and it focuses on lab results, medications, and your own notes rather than every kind of record. Conditions, allergies, and clinical notes from your portal are not imported.
Apps built on Fasten Connect. The February announcement lists several consumer apps that use Fasten’s paid retrieval service, including Novellia and PrimaryRecord. They keep the provider connections Fasten used to have, but they are cloud services with accounts, which is the opposite of why most people ran Fasten on their own hardware.
Apple Health is free on iPhone and connects to many US providers, storing records on the device. There is no Mac or Windows app, and it cannot import PDFs yet. If you only need a phone view of your records and all your providers are connected, it may be enough.
Which one fits
- You want open source and self-hosting, and your results all come from connected portals: Mere Medical.
- You want local storage without running a server, need PDF import, or use Windows: HealthViewer.
- You are comfortable with the cloud and want the widest set of provider connections: a Fasten Connect app.
To try HealthViewer with your old data, download the free trial, create a profile, then connect your portals or import your saved FHIR bundles. Getting Started walks through the first import.