DSTU2 Ballot Source

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v0.5.0: DSTU 2 Ballot 2). The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

1.29 DSTU 2 Ballot Welcome

Hello and welcome to the second FHIR DSTU ballot!

This specification represents a series of significant changes and enhancements from the first FHIR Draft Standard for Trial Use specification HL7 published in January, 2014. It includes a number of new resources including support for claims and scheduling as well as publish/subscribe and operations. It also includes changes resulting from over 1500 change proposals submitted by implementers and other readers of the specification. A complete list of changes can be found here.

While FHIR is not yet "normative", this specification is the product of many thousands of hours of development, including several ballot cycles, multiple QA cycles, 8 Connectathons and production of a number of reference and proof of concept implementations. Subsets of FHIR have been implemented or are currently being implemented on all continents other than Antarctica. Therefore we hope that you find the specification already close to an implementable state.

The FHIR specification is presented as a series of interlinked HTML pages. They can either be reviewed online or can be downloaded for exploration on your own device. (70MB zip, 550MB unzipped). You can review whichever links are of interest in any order you wish. However, to ensure a base level understanding of the specification we recommend that you click on the Documentation link and read through at least the following:

For context:

To see scope:

  • Click on the Resources link at the top to get a sense of what resources exist and maybe drill into a couple of them to see what they look like before coming back to the Documentation tab for more context

To understand base approach:

To understand key infrastructure:

For context for this ballot:

Feel free to drill down into any other sections of interest. If you want to ensure a complete review of the whole spec, the Documentation/Administration/Table of Contents may be a useful guide.

A few notes to consider:

  • A few artifacts (generally resources) have been flagged as "draft". This means that the work group authoring the content and/or the FHIR Management Group feels that the content is not yet sufficiently robust or complete for production use. Implementers may choose to implement these artifacts anyhow, but should proceed with caution and may find that more adaptation or extension will be required than for a typical resource. It is expected that "draft" resources will progress to DSTU as part of the next release. (Implementers may also want to check the Continuous Integration Build for more up-to-date versions of these resources.)
  • Not all of the outstanding issues will be resolved prior to the DSTU ballot passing. Some may be left open to allow feedback from the early adopter community.
  • This specification is complete enough to be implementable in a variety of healthcare scenarios, including supporting all content from the Consolidated CDA implementation guide. However, the set of resources is not complete. Resources may evolve and new ones will be introduced over time. Refer to FHIR Timelines for additional guidance on expectations around the evolution of the FHIR specification.

1.29.1 Balloting

HL7 ballot rules require that participants sign up prior to opening of the ballot. If you did not sign up in advance, please still submit comments using the Propose a Change link at the bottom of each page of the specification. Feedback from balloters will be given priority, but all suggestions will be considered as much as time allows. (And be sure to sign up to the FHIR list-server and/or follow the #FHIR hash-tag so you don't miss the chance to vote in the next ballot cycle.)

If you are signed up to ballot, you can download the balloting spreadsheet from the Ballot Desktop. All ballot feedback must be provided using the spreadsheet template provided. (There's a help tab that explains the meaning of each of the columns.) For FHIR, you have the option of making your comments directly in the spreadsheet or submitting your comment using the FHIR Change Tracker tool. If you take the latter approach, you must include a reference to each tracker item in your ballot spreadsheet along with a vote (negative-major, affirmative typo, etc.). All spreadsheets must be submitted along with an overall vote by end of day Eastern time on the designated ballot closure date for the comments to be considered as part of ballot disposition.

Note: By using the tracker, you reduce some of the administrative effort of managing the ballot process. As well, you will receive notifications when comments are made on your ballot comment as well as when dispositions are made. Comments not submitted to the tracker as part of the ballot process will be migrated to the tracker after all ballot submissions are received.

When submitting your ballot feedback, if you have a general comment on something that you see occurring multiple times, please include at least a couple of specific locations where you see the issue. As much as possible, capture each separate concern as a distinct row in the ballot sheet or separate tracker item. (If using tracker items for your submissions, you MUST still submit a ballot spreadsheet referencing the relevant tracker items.) It makes our job of reconciling much easier. Also, don't forget to fill in the section numbers (gray numbers to the left of each heading) and URLs.

If you have questions that are interfering with the ability to review the specification or submit ballot comments, please contact one of the co-chairs of the FHIR Management Group: Lloyd McKenzie or David Hay.

Thanks for taking the time to review the FHIR specification. We appreciate any feedback you can provide.

The HL7 FHIR Management Group (FMG)