9 FHIR resource types deal with medications and how they are managed and administered.
It’s important to understand the differences between them, and how they all interact. Here’s a real world example.
A patient visits her doctor complaining of headaches and shortness of breath.
After some investigation and a 24 hour blood pressure monitor that shows persistent elevated readings, the doctor diagnoses high blood pressure.
How is this reflected in FHIR’s medication resources?
– Medication
The doctor chooses to treat the patient with Valsartan, a common blood pressure medication.
– MedicationRequest
She writes a prescription for a month’s supply, 80 mg daily.
– MedicationDispense
The pharmacy dispenses the drug to the patient.
– MedicationStatement
The patient visits a hospital for an unrelated procedure a month later. The nurse asks her what medications she’s taking and notes Valsartan and the dosage.
– MedicationAdministration
The patient forgets to take that morning’s tablet and is giving a dose in the hospital. The nurse makes a record of the fact that the drug was administered.
– MedicationKnowledge
Prior to administering the medication, the nurse looks up guidelines for administering the drug and checks for interactions.
Before leaving the hospital the patient makes a scheduled visit to the vaccine clinic.
A further three resources deal with the administration of vaccines.
– Immunization
In the clinic another nurse administers the flu and covid vaccines to the patient.
– ImmunizationEvaluation
She makes an assessment as to whether the patient is adequately covered by the vaccines.
– ImmunizationRecommendation
And updates details for a subsequent flu vaccine in 12 months and another covid vaccine in 6 months.
You should expect to use a combination of these resources each time a medication and a patient interact.
More: http://hl7.org/fhir/R4/medications-module.html#meds
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