A set of healthcare-related information that is assembled together into a single logical document that provides a single coherent statement of meaning, establishes its own context and that has clinical attestation with regard to who is making the statement.

To support documents, and also to capture the EN13606 notion of an attested commit to the patient EHR, and to allow a set of disparate resources at the information/engineering level to be gathered into a clinical statement.

While the focus of this specification is on patient-specific clinical statements, this resource can also apply to other healthcare-related statements such as study protocol designs, healthcare invoices and other activities that are not necessarily patient-specific or clinical.

The logical id of the resource, as used in the url for the resoure. Once assigned, this value never changes.

The only time that a resource does not have an id is when it is being submitted to the server using a create operation. Bundles always have an id, though it is usually a generated UUID.

The metadata about the resource. This is content that is maintained by the infrastructure. Changes to the content may not always be associated with version changes to the resource.

A reference to a set of rules that were followed when the resource was constructed, and which must be understood when processing the content.

Asserting this rule set restricts the content to be only understood by a limited set of trading partners. This inherently limits the usefulness of the data in the long term. However the existing health eco-system is highly fractured, and not yet ready to define, collect, and exchange data in a generally computable sense. Wherever possible, implementers and/or specification writers should avoid using this element as much as possible.

The base language in which the resource is written.

Language is provided to support indexing and accessibility (typically, services such as text to speech use the language tag). The html language tag in the narrative applies to the narrative. The language tag on the resource may be used to specify the language of other presentations generated from the data in the resource

Not all the content has to be in the base language. The Resource.language should not be assumed to apply to the narrative automatically. If a language is specified, it should it also be specified on the div element in the html (see rules in HTML5 for information about the relationship between xml:lang and the html lang attribute).

A human-readable narrative that contains a summary of the resource, and may be used to represent the content of the resource to a human. The narrative need not encode all the structured data, but is required to contain sufficient detail to make it "clinically safe" for a human to just read the narrative. Resource definitions may define what content should be represented in the narrative to ensure clinical safety.

Contained resources do not have narrative. Resources that are not contained SHOULD have a narrative.

These resources do not have an independent existence apart from the resource that contains them - they cannot be identified independently, and nor can they have their own independent transaction scope.

This should never be done when the content can be identified properly, as once identification is lost, it is extremely difficult (and context dependent) to restore it again.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Logical Identifier for the composition, assigned when created. This identifier stays constant as the composition is changed over time.

See discussion in resource definition for how these relate.

The composition editing time, when the composition was last logically changed by the author.

dateTime is used for tracking, organizing versions and searching.

The Last Modified Date on the composition may be after the date of the document was attested without being changed.

Specifies the particular kind of composition (e.g. History and Physical, Discharge Summary, Progress Note). This usually equates to the purpose of making the composition.

Key metadata element describing the composition, used in searching/filtering.

A categorization for the type of the composition. This may be implied by or derived from the code specified in the Composition Type.

Helps humans to assess whether the composition is of interest when viewing an index of compositions or documents.

Official human-readable label for the composition.

If compositions do not have a title, the text or a display name of Composition.type (e.g. a "consultation" or "progress note") can be used in its place.

CDA: all documents are final

Need to be able to mark interim, amended, or withdrawn compositions or documents.

If a composition is marked as withdrawn, the compositions/documents in the series, or data from the composition or document series, should never be displayed to a user without being clearly marked as untrustworthy. The flag "withdrawn" is why this element is labeled as a modifier of other elements.

The code specifying the level of confidentiality of the Composition.

The exact use of this element, and enforcement and issues related to highly sensitive documents are out of scope for the base specification, and delegated to implementation profiles (see security section).

Who or what the composition is about. The composition can be about a person, (patient or healthcare practitioner), a device (I.e. machine) or even a group of subjects (such as a document about a herd of livestock, or a set of patients that share a common exposure).

Essential metadata for searching for the composition. Identifies who and/or what the composition/document is about.

For clinical documents, this is usually the patient.

Identifies who is responsible for the information in the composition. (Not necessarily who typed it in.).

Identifies who is responsible for the content.

A participant who has attested to the accuracy of the composition/document.

Identifies responsibility for the accuracy of the composition content.

Only list each attester once.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references).

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

The type of attestation the authenticator offers.

Indicates the level of officialness of the attestation.

Use more than one code where a single attester has more than one mode (professional and legal are often paired).

When composition was attested by the party.

Identifies when the information in the composition was deemed accurate. (Things may have changed since then.).

Who attested the composition in the specified way.

Identifies who has taken on the responsibility for accuracy of the composition content.

Identifies the organization or group who is responsible for ongoing maintenance of and access to the composition/document information.

Identifies where to go to find the current version, where to report issues, etc.

This is useful when documents are derived from a composition - provides guidance for how to get the latest version of the document. This is optional because knowing this is sometimes not known by the authoring system, and can be inferred by context. However it's important that this information be known when working with a derived document, so providing a custodian is encouraged.

The main event/act/item, such as a colonoscopy or an appendectomy, being documented.

Provides context for the composition and creates a linkage between a resource describing an event and the composition created describing the event.

The event needs to be consistent with the type element, though can provide further information if desired.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references).

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

This list of codes represents the main clinical acts, such as a colonoscopy or an appendectomy, being documented. In some cases, the event is inherent in the typeCode, such as a "History and Physical Report" in which the procedure being documented is necessarily a "History and Physical" act.

An event can further specialize the act inherent in the typeCode, such as where it is simply "Procedure Report" and the procedure was a "colonoscopy". If one or more eventCodes are included, they SHALL NOT conflict with the values inherent in the classCode, practiceSettingCode or typeCode, as such a conflict would create an ambiguous situation. This short list of codes is provided to be used as ???key words??? for certain types of queries.

The period of time covered by the documentation. There is no assertion that the documentation is a complete representation for this period, only that it documents events during this time.

Full details for the event(s) the composition/documentation consents.

Describes the clinical encounter or type of care this documentation is associated with.

Provides context for the composition and supports searching.

The root of the sections that make up the composition.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references).

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

The heading for this particular section. This will be part of the rendered content for the document.

Section headings are often standardized for different types of documents. They give guidance to humans on how the document is organized.

The title identifies the section for a human reader. The title must be consistent with the narrative of the resource that is the target of the section.content reference.

A code identifying the kind of content contained within the section.

Provides computable standardized labels to topics within the document.

The code identifies the section for an automated processor of the document. This is particularly relevant when using profiles to control the structure of the document.

If the section has content (instead of sub-sections), the section.code does not change the meaning or interpretation of the resource that is the content of the section in the comments for the section.code.

Identifies the discrete data that provides the content for the section.

Because composition represent point-in-time snapshots, resource references should either be to a specific version, or made against resources on the same server with full version tracking, so that the correct versions can easily be assembled.

A nested sub-section within this section.

Nested sections are primarily used to help human readers navigate to particular portions of the document.