This page is part of the US Core (v5.0.0: STU5) based on FHIR R4. The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.1. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions
Official URL: http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/ImplementationGuide/hl7.fhir.us.core | Version: 5.0.0 | |||
Active as of 2022-04-04 | Computable Name: USCore | |||
Copyright/Legal: Used by permission of HL7 International, all rights reserved Creative Commons License |
Key updates and detailed changes between this and prior versions are available in the US Core Change Log
The US Core Implementation Guide is based on FHIR Version R4 and defines the minimum set of constraints on the FHIR resources to create the US Core Profiles. It also defines the minimum set of FHIR RESTful interactions for each of the US Core Profiles to access patient data. By establishing the “floor” of standards to promote interoperability and adoption through common implementation, it allows for further standards development evolution for specific uses cases. There are two different ways to implement US Core:
For a detailed description between these different usages of US Core, see the Conformance Requirements page.
US Core has benefitted from testing and guidance by the Argonaut Project Team to provide additional content and guidance specific to Data Query Access for purpose of ONC Certification testing. This guide and the US Core profiles have become the foundation for US Realm FHIR implementation guides. This release is the first of yearly US Core updates to reflect changes to U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) v2 and requests from the US Realm FHIR community. This Approach is outlined in the Future of US Core page. Under the guidance of HL7 and the HL7 US Realm Steering Committee, the content will expand in future versions to meet the needs specific to the US Realm.
The US Core requirements were originally developed, balloted, and published in FHIR DSTU2 as part of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) sponsored Data Access Framework (DAF) project. The Argonaut Data Query Implementation Guide superseded DAF and documented security and authorization and the querying of the 2015 Edition Common Clinical Data Set (CCDS) and static documents. US Core descended directly from the Argonaut guide to support FHIR Version STU3 and eventually FHIR R4 and The ONC U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI).
This Guide is divided into several pages which are listed at the top of each page in the menu bar.
The following actors are part of the US Core IG:
An application that initiates a data access request to retrieve patient data. This can be thought of as the client in a client-server interaction. The terms “US Core Requestor” and “Client” are used interchangeably throughout this guide and are not meant to limit this actor to only patient and provider apps, the same technology can be used by payers and other users. Consider these terms as a short-hand notation for something like “user application”
A product that responds to the data access request providing patient data. This can be thought of as the server in a client-server interaction. The terms “US Core Responder” and “Server” and “EHR” are used interchangeably throughout this guide and are not meant to limit this actor to electronic health record systems. The same technology can be used in HIEs, care coordination platforms, population health systems, etc. Consider these terms as a short-hand notation for something like “interoperable healthcare platform”.
The list of US Core Profiles is shown below. To promote interoperability and adoption through common implementation, each profile identifies which core elements, extensions, vocabularies and value sets SHALL be present in the resource when using this profile. Together they provide the floor for standards development for specific uses cases. See the USCDI page, for a mapping to the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI).
For each profile, requirements and guidance are given in a simple narrative summary. A formal hierarchical table that presents a logical view of the content in both a differential and snapshot view is also provided along with references to appropriate terminologies and examples.
For systems that support both the US Core Profile content structure and the RESTful interactions defined for a resource, the requirements are formally defined in the US Core CapabilityStatements. Additionally, each profile page has a Quick Start Section that provides an overview of the required set of FHIR RESTful search and read operations. These sections document how to access a patient’s clinical and administrative data using the FHIR RESTful syntax:
See the FHIR specification for details on FHIR RESTful Search API and the SMART App Launch Framework for how an application gets access to a patient record.
Primary Authors: Brett Marquard, Eric Haas, Gay Dolin
Secondary Authors: Grahame Grieve, Nagesh Bashyam