Elation Health Python API Docs | dltHub

Build a Elation Health-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

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Elation Health's API documentation details the Lab Order Object, including its creation and management. The API also supports retrieving tokens and managing imaging order tests. The most relevant endpoint for lab orders is found at the provided URL. The REST API base URL is https://sandbox.elationemr.com/api/2.0/ and All requests require an OAuth2 Bearer token (client_credentials grant)..

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Elation Health data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Elation Health?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Elation Health:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
patientspatients/GETresultsList patients
patientpatients/{id}/GETRetrieve a single patient object
lab_orderslab_orders/GETresultsList lab orders
lab_orderlab_orders/{id}/GETRetrieve a lab order
imaging_ordersimaging_orders/GETresultsList imaging orders
imaging_orderimaging_orders/{id}/GETRetrieve an imaging order
practicespractices/GETresultsList practices
reportsreports/GETresultsList reports
custom_blockscustom_blocks/GETresultsList custom blocks

How do I authenticate with the Elation Health API?

Obtain an access token via the Get Token endpoint and include it in the Authorization: Bearer <token> header on every request.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Register an application with Elation to obtain a client_id and client_secret. 2) POST form‑data grant_type=client_credentials, client_id, and client_secret to the /oauth/token endpoint. 3) Store the returned access_token and use it as Authorization: Bearer <access_token> for all API calls.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.elation_health_source] token = "your_oauth_access_token_here"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.


How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the Elation Health API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

python elation_health_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

Pipeline elation_health_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset elation_health_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/elation_health.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline elation_health_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.


Python pipeline example

This example loads lab_orders and patients from the Elation Health API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

import dlt from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources @dlt.source def elation_health_source(token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://sandbox.elationemr.com/api/2.0/", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "lab_orders", "endpoint": {"path": "lab_orders/", "data_selector": "results"}}, {"name": "patients", "endpoint": {"path": "patients/", "data_selector": "results"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="elation_health_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="elation_health_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(elation_health_source()) print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.


How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("elation_health_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.lab_orders.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM elation_health_data.lab_orders LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("elation_health_pipeline").dataset() data.lab_orders.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.


What destinations can I load Elation Health data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

DestinationExample value
DuckDB (local, default)"duckdb"
PostgreSQL"postgres"
BigQuery"bigquery"
Snowflake"snowflake"
Redshift"redshift"
Databricks"databricks"
Filesystem (S3, GCS, Azure)"filesystem"

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.


Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

  • data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
  • dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

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