“FHIR Documents” is one of FHIR’s hidden gems.
Have you ever lifted a stone in the garden and found a thriving colony of ants underneath?
There are aspects of FHIR that feel like this. Huge features hidden away, waiting to be discovered.
“FHIR Documents” is one of these.
It sounds small, simple, contained.
In reality it’s a powerful and elegant way of storing and sharing a set or statement of healthcare information.
Some examples:
- Laboratory report
- Surgical operation note
- Chemotherapy records
- Plan of care note
- Endoscopy study
Here’s a more complete list of FHIR Document types codes: http://hl7.org/fhir/R4/valueset-doc-typecodes.html#expansion
Here’s a summary of what a FHIR Document contains:
1. A ‘document’ Bundle
- A FHIR Document is stored as a Bundle resource of type ‘document’
- It contains a copy of all resources used to construct the document
- The Bundle.identifier functions as the primary document identifier
- Each document Bundle is immutable – its content can never be changed
2. A Composition Resource
- The first resource in the Bundle must be a Composition resource
- This is made up of multiple sections, each containing different content
- It has links to the subject and to the author of the document
- And to associated resources such as Observation and Encounter
3. Narratives
- The document combines text narratives to present human readable content
- Narratives are taken from the Composition.subject
- And from the Composition itself and each section it contains
- The Bundle link element stores a link to a CSS stylesheet to help render the document.
If you’re unfamiliar with FHIR Documents it’s well worth investing an hour of your time reading up on them.
More about FHIR Documents: https://hl7.org/fhir/R4/documents.html
More about the Composition resource: https://hl7.org/fhir/R4/composition.html
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