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6.6 Resource Provenance - Content

Provenance information that describes the activity that led to the creation of a set of resources. This information can be used to help determine their reliability or trace where the information in them came from. The focus of the provenance resource is record keeping, audit and traceability, and not explicit statements of clinical significance.

6.6.3 Resource Content

<Provenance xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir"> 
 <!-- from Resource: extension, modifierExtension, language, text, and contained -->
 <target><!-- 1..* Resource(Any) Target resource(s) (usually version specific) --></target>
 <period><!-- 0..1 Period When the activity occurred --></period>
 <recorded value="[instant]"/><!-- 1..1 When the activity was recorded / updated -->
 <reason><!-- 0..1 CodeableConcept Reason the activity is occurring --></reason>
 <location><!-- 0..1 Resource(Location) Where the activity occurred, if relevant --></location>
 <policy value="[uri]"/><!-- 0..* Policy or plan the activity was defined by -->
 <agent>  <!-- 0..* Person, organization, records, etc. involved in creating resource -->
  <role><!-- 1..1 Coding e.g. author | overseer | enterer | attester | source | cc: + --></role>
  <type><!-- 1..1 Coding e.g. Resource | Person | Application | Record | Document + --></type>
  <reference value="[uri]"/><!-- 1..1 Identity of agent (urn or url) -->
  <display value="[string]"/><!-- 0..1 Human description of participant -->
 </agent>
 <entity>  <!-- 0..* An entity used in this activity -->
  <role value="[code]"/><!-- 1..1 derivation | revision | quotation | source -->
  <type><!-- 1..1 Coding Resource Type, or something else --></type>
  <reference value="[uri]"/><!-- 1..1 Identity of participant (urn or url) -->
  <display value="[string]"/><!-- 0..1 Human description of participant -->
  <agent><!-- 0..1 Content as for Provenance.agent Entity is attributed to this agent --></agent>
 </entity>
 <integritySignature value="[string]"/><!-- 0..1 Base64 signature (DigSig) - integrity check -->
</Provenance>

Alternate definitions: Schema/Schematron, Resource Profile

6.6.3.1 Terminology Bindings

6.6.3.2 Using the Provenance Resource

The provenance resource identifies information about another resource (the reference element). The provenance resource may be used in several different ways:

• As part of a document bundle where it identifies the provenance of part or all of the document
• On a RESTful system where it keeps track of provenance information relating to resources

When used in a document bundle, the references are often not explicitly versioned, but they always implicitly pertain to the version of the resource found in the document. On a RESTful system, the target resource reference should be version specific, but this requires special care: For new resources that need to have a corresponding Provenance resource, the version-specific reference is often not knowable until after the target resource has been updated. This can create an integrity problem for the system - what if the provenance resource cannot be created after the target resource has been updated? To avoid any such integrity problems, the target resource and the provenance resources should be submitted as a pair using a transaction.

6.6.3.3 Digital Signatures

The provenance resource includes an integritySignature element which contains an XML digital signature.

The purpose of the signature is limited to checking cryptographic integrity of the target resource(s); e.g. detecting whether changes have occurred between the original construction of the resource and the application processing it. In order to make proper use of the signature element, implementation profiles are required to further clarify the obligations around creating and checking the signature.

The following rules apply to digital signature:

• The Certificate identifier SHOULD match the identity of an agent (Provenance.agent.reference)
• If the signature has an IHE purposeOfSignature property, the value SHALL be "source", OID "1.2.840.10065.1.12", which means "the signature of an automated data source". If the signature does not have a purposeOfSignature property, the signature is still to used for this use
• Whether the representation of the Provenance resource is xml or json, the signature is a base64 of the XML signature
• The signature is always a signature of the target resource XML representation using a stated canonicalization

6.6.3.4 Party References

Because the Provenance resource often refers to parties that are not represented as FHIR resources, Agent and Entity references are allowed to be either references to other resources, or they can refer to other entities that are not FHIR resources.

The code in the .type element is used to differentiate between the two: if the code is in the system "http://hl7.org/fhir/resource-types", then the reference is to a resource, and the element reference functions exactly the same as in a Resource Reference.

  <agent>
    <type>
      <system value="http://hl7.org/fhir/resource-types"/>
      <code value="Person"/>
    </type>
    <reference value="person/@34/history/3"/>
  </agent>

In effect, this is the same pattern as a standard resource reference, but the type becomes extensible to allow referencing other kinds of resources.

  <agent>
    <type>
      <system value="http://hl7.org/fhir/provenance-participant-type"/>  
      <code value="person"/>
    </type>  
    <reference value="http://acme.com/users/34"/>
  </agent>

One subtle issue with the use of the Provenance resource is to differentiate between whether the reference is to the Resource itself, or whether the the reference is to the real world thing that the resource represents, e.g. was it the person involved in the activity, or the record of the person. For Agents, it should be understood that the reference is to the real world thing that the resource represents.

6.6.4 Search Parameters

Search parameters for this resource. The standard parameters also apply. See Searching for more information about searching in REST, messaging, and services.