A Resource Profile - a statement of use of one or more FHIR Resources. It may include constraints on Resources and Data Types, Terminology Binding Statements and Extension Definitions.

Often called a clinical template.

The URL at which this profile is (or will be) published, and which is used to reference this profile in extension urls and tag values in operational FHIR systems.

So you can say, in a profile, what the full extensions URLs should be. This is required to allow hosting profiles on multiple different servers, and to allow for the editorial process.

Formal identifier that is used to identify this profile when it is represented in other formats, or referenced in a specification, model, design or an instance (should be globally unique OID, UUID, or URI), (if it's not possible to use the literal URI).

N/A.

The identifier that is used to identify this version of the profile when it is referenced in a specification, model, design or instance. This is an arbitrary value managed by the profile author manually.

There may be multiple resource versions of the profile that have this same identifier. The resource version id will change for technical reasons, whereas the stated version number needs to be under the author's control.

N/A.

A free text natural language name identifying the Profile.

Not expected to be globally unique.

Defined so that applications can use this name when displaying the value of the extension to the user.

Applications don't have to use this name, but can always fall back to it. In the absence of a value for this element, use the name.

The name of the individual or organization that published the structure definition.

Helps establish the "authority/credibility" of the structure definition. May also allow for contact.

Usually an organization, but may be an individual. This item SHOULD be populated unless the information is available from context.

Contacts to assist a user in finding and communicating with the publisher.

May be a web site, an email address, a telephone number (tel:), etc.

The name of an individual to contact regarding the structure definition.

If there is no named individual, the telecom is for the organization as a whole.

Contact details for individual (if a name was provided) or the publisher.

A free text natural language description of the profile and its use.

This field can be used for things such as why the profile was written, comments about misuse, instructions for clinical use and interpretation, literature references, examples from the paper world, etc. It is not a rendering of the profile as conveyed in StructureDefinition.text. This item SHOULD be populated unless the information is available from context.

Explains why this structure definition is needed and why it's been constrained as it has.

This element does not describe the usage of the structure definition (that's done in comments), rather it's for traceability of why the element is either needed or why the constraints exist as they do. This may be used to point to source materials or specifications that drove the structure of this data element.

A copyright statement relating to the structure definition and/or its contents. Copyright statements are generally legal restrictions on the use and publishing of the details of the constraints and mappings.

A set of terms from external terminologies that may be used to assist with indexing and searching of templates.

Assist in searching for appropriate profiles.

The status of the profile.

Allows filtering of profiles that are appropriate for use vs. not.

This profile was authored for testing purposes (or education/evaluation/marketing), and is not intended to be used for genuine usage.

Allows filtering of profiles that are appropriate for use vs. not.

The date that this version of the profile was published.

The version of the FHIR specification on which this profile is based - this is the formal version of the specification, without the revision number, e.g. [publication].[major].[minor], which is 0.4.0 for this version.

A profile does not need to specify the target it applies to,as profiles will often be valid across multiple versions of FHIR. FHIR tooling can determine whether a profile is consistent with a particular profile if desired.

An external specification that the content is mapped to.

An Internal id that is used to identify this mapping set when specific mappings are made.

The specification is described once, with general comments, and then specific mappings are made that reference this declaration.

A URI that identifies the specification that this mapping is expressed to.

A formal identity for the specification being mapped to helps with identifying maps consistently.

A name for the specification that is being mapped to.

Comments about this mapping, including version notes, issues, scope limitations, and other important notes for usage.

Defines the type of structure that this definition is describing.

Identifies the type of context to which the extension applies.

Identifies the types of resource or data type elements to which the extension can be applied.

If the context is an element that can have multiple types, then use (e.g.) value[x] if the extension works on all choice types, or otherwise an enumeration of explicitly named elements if not. Note that a context of "string" doesn't mean that the extension can be used with one of the string patterns such as "id" etc.

The structure that is the base on which this set of constraints is derived from.

If differential constraints are specified in this structure, they are applied to the base in a "differential" fashion. If there is no base, then the differential constraints cannot be provided (snapshot only). Differential structures are useful for the editing perspective, and snapshot structures are suitable for operational use. The FHIR Project provides a number of tools/services to populate snaphots from differential constraints.

A snapshot view is expressed in a stand alone form that can be used and interpreted without considering the base profile.

Captures constraints on each element within the resource.

A differential view is expressed relative to the base profile - a statement of differences that it applies.

Captures constraints on each element within the resource.