This page is part of the FHIR Specification v6.0.0-ballot5: Release 6 Ballot (2nd Full Ballot) (see Ballot Notes). The current version is 5.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions for published versions

Responsible Owner: Work Group Terminology Infrastructure

Standards Status: Informative

4.0 Terminology Module

4.0.1 Introduction

The Terminology Module is a foundational component of core FHIR specification. Any terminology related resource type, operation or datatype is part of the Terminology Module.

The diagram below shows the relationship between terminology-related artifacts.

Example: Condition profile with Condition.code slice bound to "SNOMED CT fracture codes" value set

[Note: Blue boxes denote resources in the Terminology Module and brown boxes denote resources/datatypes outside of it.]

4.0.2 Index

The Terminology Module covers the following:

Resources

CodeSystem ValueSet

ConceptMap NamingSystem

TerminologyCapabilities

Terminology Service

Terminology Service Documentation

Terminology Specific Operations

CodeSystem $lookup $validate-code $subsumes

ValueSet $expand $validate-code

ConceptMap $translate

NamingSystem $preferred-id $translate-id

Coded Datatypes

code

Coding

CodeableConcept

Documentation

Using Codes in Resources Code Systems Defined/Referenced in FHIR Value Sets Defined in FHIR

Mappings (FHIR-defined) Between Related Value Set Concepts Identifier Systems

4.0.3 Security and Privacy

For security considerations for terminology services, see the Terminology Service page Security section. For more general considerations, see the Security and Privacy module.

4.0.4 Common Use Cases

• Create or reference a code system
• Create, reference or expand a value set
• Record codes, expressions and translations
• Validate or look up a display term for a code
• Translate a code from one value set to another
• Test subsumption between concepts
• Create or reference a concept map
• Formally describing the capabilities of a terminology service
• Operate a terminology service

4.0.5 Development Roadmap

The following terminology resources have been tested and are being used in production tooling and are normative.

• ValueSet
• CodeSystem
• ConceptMap
• NamingSystem
• TerminologyCapabilities