This page is part of the HL7 FHIR Implementation Guide for Military Service History and Status (v1.0.0: STU1) based on FHIR R4. This is the current published version. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Conformance Expectations

This section outlines requirements and recommendations for Military Service History participants. The conformance verbs - SHALL or MUST, SHOULD, and MAY - are defined in FHIR Conformance Rules.

Military Service History Participant Roles

Two roles for Military Service History Participants are defined:

• Military Service History and Status (Military Service History) Data Sender - a system provides Military Service History data in response to a data query or autonomously pushes Military Service History data to an Military Service History receiver. The data sender does not have to be the originator of the data it possesses. The data sender role is similar to a US Core Responder, except the data sent is not assumed to be a response to a query.

  • This role may be played may be FHIR server enabled API.

• Military Service History Data Receiver - a system involved in exchange of Military Service History data that accepts Military Service History data from an Military Service History Data Sender. The data receiver may receive data as part of a predetermined workflow or initiate the exchange via a query or on a regular basis via subscription. The receiver role is similar to a US Core Requestor, except the data does not have to be explicitly requested.

  • This role may be a played by an EHR system, web application, patient-facing application, etc.

This implementation currently only provides CapabilityStatements consistent with FHIR US Core and documentation for “pull” (query-response) architectures, however, regardless how exchanges occur, all participants MUST follow the conformance requirements in this IG, except those specifically identified as applying only to pull architectures.

“MUST” Requirements for Conformance

• Patient resources ** veteranStatus operation

• Observation resource Both resources implemented consistent with US Core

Publish a CapabilityStatement Identifying Supported Profiles and Operations

Each Military Service History participant MUST publish a FHIR CapabilityStatement listing their supported profiles, by declaring the profile in CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.supportedProfile. The CapabilityStatement SHALL be returned in response to a GET [base]/metadata request.

ALL Military Service History participants MUST at minimum support the [MilitaryServiceEpisode], [DeploymentEpisode] profiles. Ideally, the [MilitaryOccupation] will also be included to specify what military occupation or occupations were performed during military service.

Support US Core Conformance Requirements

Additional conformance requirements from US Core apply to RESTful interactions, searches, and resource formats in Military Service History. Military Service History “inherits” all US Core conformance requirements. US Core provides base profiles for many (but not all) Military Service History profiles, defines the meaning of MustSupport, and outlines expectations for handling of missing or unknown data elements. Likewise, US Core outlines how to associate provenance information associated with collection, transfer, and updating of clinical information.

International users of Military Service History may find US Core an impediment to implementation. Application of Military Service History to other countries is open to further discussion.

“SHOULD” Recommendations for Conformance

Military Service History participants SHOULD meet the following requirements for conformance:

1. Support all Military Service Profiles

2. Use to indicate Conformance

Support All Military Service History Profiles

In addition to supporting the core profiles as described above, Military Service History participants SHOULD support all profiles defined in Military Service History UNLESS the participant does not anticipate supplying or consuming a certain type of data, usually by virtue of playing a limited or specialized role in clinical or information workflows.

Participants SHOULD also support the custom operation ($veteranStatus) specified in this implementation

Use meta.profile to Signal Conformance

Participants SHOULD populate meta.profile elements for all resources to indicate which profiles the resources should conform to. Participants SHOULD also implement profile search, which allows participants to query using the _profile parameter to return resources conforming to the profiles declared in meta.profile.

Profile search and population of meta.profile originate as “SHALL” requirements in the base FHIR specification; they are not an additional requirements imposed by Military Service History. However, in practice, few implementations have followed these requirements. Refer to the FHIR Documentation on supported profiles for details.

Capability Statements

This implementation specifies a specialization of the generic US core implementation guide and the capabilities:

[Server]: https://www.hl7.org/fhir/us/core/CapabilityStatement-us-core-server.html FHIR US Core Capability Statement - Client:https://www.hl7.org/fhir/us/core/CapabilityStatement-us-core-client.html

• The Verification API/Server will conform with US Core (US Core Responder) and SHALL support the profiles and custom operation specified in this implementation guide.

• The application/Client will conform with US Core (US Core Requestor) and SHALL interpret and process the information specified in the profiles described in this implementation guide.