22
33## A brief abstract of FHIR, resources and profiles
44
5- [ FHIR] (pronounced "fire") is a globally established standard for exchanging healthcare information
6- electronically . The base building blocks of FHIR are so-called * resources* . Resources have a type
7- that defines their base schema. This schema can be further customised through one or more
8- * profiles* .
5+ [ FHIR] (pronounced "fire") is a globally established standard for the digital exchange of
6+ healthcare-related information . The base building block of FHIR are so-called * resources* . Resources
7+ have a type that defines their base schema. This schema can be further customised through one or
8+ more * profiles* .
99
10- As an example, [ ` Patient ` ] is the resource type for patients which defines several fields. Among
11- these are the * optional* property ` birthDate ` for the person's date of birth and ` photo ` for any
12- number of pictures of the person.
13-
14- [ ` TIPatient ` ] is a profile on ` Patient ` defined by Germany's national health agency, gematik, for
15- use within their own network (TI). It customises the schema of ` Patient ` in several ways, such as
16- making ` birthDate ` required rather than optional.
17-
18- [ ` EPAPatient ` ] , in turn, is another profile on ` Patient ` defined by gematik, specifically for use in
19- Germany's digital patient file (EPA). ` EPAPatient ` builds on top of ` TIPatient ` and adds further
20- customisations like, for instance, the requirement for the elements of ` photo ` to include the field
21- ` contentType ` if the picture is supplied inline as Base64.
22-
23- As a result, the valid schema of a FHIR resource for a patient within Germany's digital patient file
24- is determined by the combination of the resource type ` Patient ` and the profiles ` TIPatient ` and
25- ` EPAPatient ` .
10+ As an example, [ ` Questionnaire ` ] is the resource type for medical forms that can be used for various
11+ purposes. This type defines several fields such as an * optional* ` title ` property containing a human
12+ friendly name for the form. [ ` ISiKFormularDefinition ` ] , in turn, is a profile on ` Questionnaire `
13+ created by Germany's national health agency, gematik, for use within hospitals. It customises the
14+ schema of ` Questionnaire ` in several ways, such as making ` title ` required rather than optional.
2615
2716Both resource types and profiles can be uniquely identified by their [ canonical URL] .
2817
@@ -31,13 +20,14 @@ Both resource types and profiles can be uniquely identified by their [canonical
3120FHIR resources can be serialised into JSON or XML which can be transmitted via the [ ` m.file ` ]
3221message type with a MIME type of ` application/fhir+json ` or ` application/fhir+xml ` . However, the
3322generic MIME type doesn't let clients understand what resource is contained in the file without
34- downloading it. This is suboptimal because clients may want to render a rich UI for certain resource
35- types and profiles. An example of this is the [ ` Questionnaire ` ] resource which represents a form
36- that can be filled out by the recipient and responded to with a [ ` QuestionnaireResponse ` ] resource.
23+ downloading it. This is suboptimal because clients may want to apply special display logic for
24+ certain resource types and profiles. Using the example of ` Questionnaire ` s, clients may want to
25+ render the resource as an interactive form for the user to fill out and send back a
26+ [ ` QuestionnaireResponse ` ] resource.
3727
3828Similarly, clients that connect external systems to Matrix may want to automatically process certain
3929resources. For instance, an anamnesis bot may want to export received ` QuestionnaireResponse ` s into
40- a surgery's patient management system. Again, the generic MIME type forces such clients to download
30+ a surgery's patient management system. Again, the generic MIME type forces such a client to download
4131the file to determine if it is indeed a ` QuestionnaireResponse ` .
4232
4333These problems would be obliterated if FHIR resources were inlined into Matrix events. However, this
@@ -131,13 +121,11 @@ None.
131121 however.
132122
133123 [FHIR]: https://hl7.org/fhir/
134- [` Patient` ]: http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient
135- [` TIPatient` ]: https://simplifier.net/packages/de.gematik.ti/1.1.1/files/2968490
136- [` EPAPatient` ]: https://simplifier.net/packages/de.gematik.epa/1.2.0/files/2968520/~overview
124+ [` Questionnaire` ]: http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Questionnaire
125+ [` ISiKFormularDefinition` ]: https://gematik.de/fhir/isik/StructureDefinition/ISiKFormularDefinition
137126 [canonical URL]: https://build.fhir.org/references.html#canonical
138127 [` m .file ` ]: https://spec.matrix.org/v1.14/client-server-api/#mfile
139- [` Questionnaire` ]: https://www.hl7.org/fhir/questionnaire.html
140- [` QuestionnaireResponse` ]: https://build.fhir.org/questionnaireresponse.html
128+ [` QuestionnaireResponse` ]: http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/QuestionnaireResponse
141129 [64 KiB event size limit]: https://spec.matrix.org/v1.16/client-server-api/#size-limits
142130 [` Meta .profile ` ]: http://hl7.org/fhir/resource-definitions.html#Meta.profile
143131 [MSC3551]: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/pull/3551
0 commit comments