This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v0.05: DSTU 1 Draft). The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Overview

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) defines a set of resources for use in exchanging information about the healthcare processes. Resources are:

• Granular - they are the smallest unit of operation and a transaction scope of their own
• Independent - the content of a resource can be understood without reference to other resources
• Simple - each resource is easy to understand and implement without needing tooling or infrastructure (though that can be used if desired)
• RESTful - resources are able to be used in a RESTful exchange context
• Flexible - resources can also be used in other contexts, such as messaging or SOA architectures, and moved in and out of RESTful paradigms as convenient
• Extensible - resources can be extended to cater for local requirements without impacting on interoperability
• Web Enabled - where possible or appropriate, open internet standards are used for data representation
• Free for use - the FHIR specification itself is open - anyone can implement FHIR or derive related specifications without any IP restrictions

In addition to the basic resources, FHIR defines a lightweight implementation framework that supports the use of these resources in RESTful environments, classic message exchanges, human-centric clinical documents and enterprise SOA architectures. Each of these approaches provides its own benefits - FHIR provides the underpinning enablement that makes the choosing one of these painless and enables enterprises to choose their own paradigm without forsaking interoperability with other paradigms.

Though the resources are simple and easy to understand, they are backed by a thorough, global requirements gathering and formal modeling process that ensures that the content of the resources is stable and reliable. The resource contents are mapped to solid underlying ontologies and models using computable languages (including RDF) so that the definitions and contents of the resources can be leveraged by computational analysis and conversion processes.

FHIR also provides an underlying conformance framework and tooling that allows different implementation contexts and enterprises to describe their context and use of resources in formal computable ways and to empower computed interoperability that leverages both the conformance and definitional frameworks.

The combination of the resources and the 3 supporting layers (implementation frameworks, definitional thoroughness, and conformance tooling) frees healthcare data so that it can easily flow to where it needs to be (hospital production systems, mobile clinical systems, cloud based data stores, national health repositories, research databases, etc.) without having to pass through format and semantic inter-conversion hurdles along the way.

Compared to the all the other approaches, FHIR... [-- Obligatory: insert your FHIR FIRE related joke here --].

Roadmap

This specification is structured into 3 parts, the introduction, the implementation section and the resource definitions.

Introduction

The introduction provides foundational material that is required to understand and use resources:

• Introduction: Overall introduction, useful links and the FHIR license
• This roadmap
• Resource Formats: An explanation of the general content and format of all resources and how they are described
• Data Types: Common re-usable patterns encountered throughout healthcare data and used in the resources
• Using Codes: Explains how the use of codes (code systems, terminologies, classifications, ontologies) is managed in FHIR
• Extensibility: Describes the extension section of the resource and specifies the rules that apply to its use
• Resource Profiles: Describes how resources are profiled to describe their use in a particular context

Implementation

The implementation section explains how resources are used in various contexts:

• Implementation: General requirements for using resources and various useful things including schema packs and reference implementations
• REST (HTTP): Defines a lightweight HTTP based paradigm for using resources
• Messaging: A simple request/response message based transactional framework (equivalent to HL7 v2)
• Documents: Clinical documents contain attested content that are both human readable and computer processable and can be exchanged and signed as single bundles (equivalent to CDA)
• hData Integration: An explanation of how to use resources in a the context of an hData RESTful service
• Atom Feeds: Atom feeds are used to gather a set of resources into a single XML document when they are transferred as a group - these are called "bundles"
• Value Set: A resource that describes a set of codes - used in association with profiles to specify resource contents and potentially usable in other contexts
• Conformance: A resource that describes how an application does, can, or should use FHIR resources

Resources

The resources section enumerates the resources:

• Resources: An index of the defined resources
• etc.: The resources in alphabetical order

For each resource, the following pages are provided:

• Content: Provides context for the resource and defines its content with a simple XML format and some additional description. Formal definitions such as W3C schema and others are also provided. Also describes events and search criteria associated with the resource.
• Examples: Provides one or more examples that show how the resource is used.
• Formal Definitions: A table of the full formal definitions for each element in the resource along with mappings to other standards and ontologies.
• Design Notes: Explanations of some of the less obvious aspects of the resource and explanation of why the resource is structured in a particular way. Not all resources have design notes and implementers do not need to read them.
• Profiles: A list of profiles of the resource that are provided as part of the standard. Profiles may be provided to illustrate some aspect of the use of a resource or because certain particular uses of a resource are sufficiently common to warrant a standard profile.

Community

The FHIR community meets inside the wider HL7 community and draws on its extensive human resources, institutional memory, previous standards and corporate support. HL7 itself owns FHIR and makes it freely available and the community relies on HL7 provided infrastructure.

The primary resources used by the FHIR community are the HL7 wiki, and the FHIR email list. In addition, the community holds regular face to face meetings as part of the HL7 Working Group meetings. The formal governance arrangements that manage FHIR development are documented (where?)

Note that each page contains a direct link its matching wiki page where input from the wider community is managed. Community input is very welcome - please consider making comments.

---

This is an old version of FHIR retained for archive purposes. Do not use for anything else
Implementers are welcome to experiment with the content defined here, but should note that the contents are subject to change without prior notice.
© HL7.org 2011 - 2012. FHIR v0.05 generated on Sun, Sep 9, 2012 03:28+1000. License