This page is part of the Vital Records Mortality and Morbidity Reporting FHIR IG (v0.1.0: STU 1 Ballot 1) based on FHIR R3. The current version which supercedes this version is 2.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Cause of Death Pathway

Cause of Death Pathway is a profile of the FHIR STU3 List resource. It is used to convey the priority-based sequence of conditions contributing to the cause of death as determined by the death certifier. The first entry in the list is used to convey the final disease or condition resulting in death. The final entry in the list is used to convey the ΓÇ£underlying causeΓÇ¥, the disease or injury that initiated the events resulting in death. The intervening entries between the first and last entries are used to convey the sequence of conditions leading to death.


UML Expression


Structure Definition

id 0..1
profile 1..1
status 1..1 codeFixed Value
mode 1..1 codeFixed Value
source 1..1 Reference(Practitioner | Patient | Device)
orderedBy 1..1 CodeableConceptFixed Value
item 1..1 Reference(Resource)

Element Bindings

Element Name Binding Type Binding Value Fixed Value Code System
orderedBy Fixed Value "priority" list-order
source Reference VRDR Certifier
status Fixed Value "current" list-status

Element Table

List ..
List.id 0..1
List.meta 0..1
List.meta.profile 1..1
List.status code 1..1
List.mode code 1..1
List.source Reference(Practitioner | Patient | Device) 1..1
List.orderedBy CodeableConcept 1..1
List.entry 0..*
List.entry.item Reference(Resource) 1..1


Instance Example

<List>
  <id value="example-cause-of-death-pathway" />
  <meta>
    <profile value="http://www.hl7.org/fhir/us/vrdr/StructureDefinition/VRDR-Cause-of-Death-Pathway" />
  </meta>
  <status value="current" />
  <mode value="snapshot" />
  <source>
    <reference value="example-practitioner" />
  </source>
  <orderedBy>
    <coding>
      <code value="priority" />
    </coding>
  </orderedBy>
  <entry>
    <item>
      <reference value="example-cause-of-death-condition" />
    </item>
  </entry>
</List>