Deploy and Host Medplum on Railway

Medplum is an open-source healthcare platform built around HL7 FHIR. It provides APIs, authentication, storage, and a ready-to-use web app for building modern healthcare applications such as EHRs, patient portals, and clinical workflows.

About Hosting Medplum

Hosting Medplum requires a PostgreSQL database for persistence, Redis for caching and job queues, and optional file storage for binary data. The platform consists of two main services:

Medplum Server → FHIR API, authentication, and backend logic
Medplum App → Frontend web application served via Nginx

Railway provisions all required services, handles networking, SSL, and environment configuration.

Common Use Cases

Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Patient portals and scheduling systems
Clinical workflows and automation
Healthcare integrations using FHIR
Internal tools for clinics and providers

Dependencies for Medplum Hosting

PostgreSQL (main database)
Redis (cache, queues, sessions)
Optional persistent storage (binary/file storage)

Deployment Dependencies

Medplum GitHub
HL7 FHIR Standard
Railway Documentation

Implementation Details

Environment variables (Medplum Server)

Use Railway reference syntax:

Variable	Value
`MEDPLUM_BASE_URL`	`https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`
`MEDPLUM_APP_BASE_URL`	`https://${{"Medplum App".RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`
`MEDPLUM_PORT`	`${{"Medplum Server".PORT}}`
`PORT`	`8103`
`MEDPLUM_DATABASE_HOST`	`${{Postgres.PGHOST}}`
`MEDPLUM_DATABASE_PORT`	`${{Postgres.PGPORT}}`
`MEDPLUM_DATABASE_USERNAME`	`${{Postgres.PGUSER}}`
`MEDPLUM_DATABASE_PASSWORD`	`${{Postgres.PGPASSWORD}}`
`MEDPLUM_DATABASE_DBNAME`	`${{Postgres.PGDATABASE}}`
`MEDPLUM_REDIS_HOST`	`${{Redis.REDISHOST}}`
`MEDPLUM_REDIS_PORT`	`${{Redis.REDISPORT}}`
`MEDPLUM_REDIS_PASSWORD`	`${{Redis.REDISPASSWORD}}`
`MEDPLUM_STORAGE_BASE_URL`	`https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}/storage/`
`MEDPLUM_BINARY_STORAGE`	`file:./binary/`

Environment variables (Medplum App)

Variable	Value
`MEDPLUM_BASE_URL`	`https://${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`
`MEDPLUM_CLIENT_ID`	``

Architecture Overview

Medplum Server
- Handles FHIR resources
- Authentication (OAuth, email, etc.)
- Business logic and bots
Medplum App
- Static frontend served via Nginx
- Connects to Medplum Server via MEDPLUM_BASE_URL

Why Deploy Medplum on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway manages your services, networking, and scaling so you can focus on building healthcare applications.

By deploying Medplum on Railway, you can quickly launch a fully functional FHIR backend and web app, ready for production use with minimal setup.