Set of definitional characteristics for a kind of observation or measurement produced or consumed by an orderable health care service.

In a catalog of health-related services that use or produce observations and measurements, this resource describes the expected characteristics of these observation / measurements.

An instance of this resource informs the consumer of a health-related service (such as a lab diagnostic test or panel) about how the observations used or produced by this service will look like.

A code that classifies the general type of observation.

Used for filtering what observations are retrieved and displayed.

In addition to the required category valueset, this element allows various categorization schemes based on the owner’s definition of the category and effectively multiple categories can be used at once. The level of granularity is defined by the category concepts in the value set.

Describes what will be observed. Sometimes this is called the observation "name".

Knowing what kind of observation is being made is essential to understanding the observation.

Data type allowed for the result of the observation.

Multiple results allowed for this kind of observation.

The method or technique used to perform the observation.

In some cases, method can impact results.

Only used if not implicit in observation code.

The preferred name to be used when reporting the results of this observation.

Characteristics for quantitative results of this observation.

Customary unit used to report quantitative results of this observation.

SI unit used to report quantitative results of this observation.

Factor for converting value expressed with SI unit to value expressed with customary unit.

Number of digits after decimal separator when the results of this observation are of type Quantity.

Reference range for ordinal and continuous observations.

multiple reference ranges, for different patient contexts.

The category or type of interval.

The value and associated unit of the low bound (inclusive) of the reference range.

The unit may be not relevant for ordinal values. In case it is there, it is the same as SIunit or customaryUnit.

Codes to indicate what part of the targeted reference population it applies to. For example, the normal or therapeutic range.

what kind of reference range this is - normal, recommended, therapeutic, etc., - for proper interpretation.

normal range is the default.

Codes to indicate the target population this reference range applies to.

target population (male, female, pregnancy, a specific race ….

If this element is not present then the global population is assumed.

The age at which this reference range is applicable. This is a neonatal age (e.g. number of weeks at term) if the meaning says so.

Some analytes vary greatly over age.

The gestational age at which this reference range is applicable, in the context of pregnancy.

Text based condition for which the reference range is valid.

The set of valid coded results for the observation.

The set of normal coded results for the observation.

The set of abnormal coded results for the observation.

The set of critical coded results for the observation.