MCP server (Model Context Protocol)
An MCP server is a service that exposes tools, data, and prompts to AI assistants through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets an agent discover what a system can do and call it directly — in healthcare, the way an assistant can be given the ability to register a patient, request a refill, or check an order without custom integration code for each assistant.
- Open standard for exposing tools to AI assistants
- Describe tools once; any compatible assistant can call them
- Healthcare tools mirror the API — never a “prescribe” tool
- Lithos MCP server: early access
What it changes for healthcare infrastructure
Before tool protocols, every assistant needed a bespoke integration with every API. An MCP server describes the tools once — their names, inputs, and what they do — and any compatible assistant can use them. For clinical infrastructure that means the same guarded actions (patients, care plans, encounters, catalog, status) become available to consumer assistants, internal ops agents, and brand-built agents alike.
What a healthcare MCP server must not do
Expose a tool that prescribes. The tools an assistant can call should mirror what a product can call: create or match a patient, capture consent, submit a request from the approved catalog, read status. The clinician’s decision remains a human action inside the infrastructure; the assistant learns the outcome through status tools or webhooks. Authentication, BAAs, and audit logging apply exactly as they do for the REST API.
Where this is going
Assistants are becoming a channel for care the way apps became one: a user asks to refill a medication and the assistant does it. Infrastructure that speaks the protocol — with the human loop built in — is what lets that happen lawfully.
Compliance handled, so you can build
Lithos runs the clinicians, pharmacies, and 50-state rules behind your care program — one API.
Frequently asked questions
Is an MCP server the same as an API?
It sits on top of one. The API is the underlying set of operations; the MCP server describes a subset as tools an assistant can discover and call, with the same authentication and guardrails.
Can an assistant prescribe through an MCP server?
No. Prescribing is a licensed clinician’s act. An assistant can submit a request and read the outcome; the clinician decides and signs inside the infrastructure.
Does Lithos have an MCP server?
Yes, in early access, exposing patients, care plans, encounters, catalog treatments, and status as tools. Ask on a call for access.