FHIR Work Groups

Responsibility for FHIR content is distributed among many HL7 work groups. Information about the work groups can be found both on the Main Page of the wiki as well as on the HL7 website. This page describes the types of responsibility work groups can have for FHIR resources, profiles and other specification pages.

Resource and FHIR-page 'Owners'

• Each resource has exactly one owning WG

• The owner of a resource is established by the FHIR Management Group and may change over time. Considerations include:
  • Domain knowledge of the WG with respect to the focus of the page
  • Bandwidth of the WG to perform the necessary work
  • Ability of the WG to manage the technical development effort
  • Degree of understanding and commitment to FHIR core principles and methodology

(If the latter two are lacking, the FMG will work with the WG to bring them to the necessary level of capability)

• • Resources will not be assigned to another WG without first discussing any issues with the current owner.

• The owning WG has primary responsibility for maintaining the resource. This includes:
  • Being familiar with and adhering to the FHIR methodology as documented on the wiki (keep in mind that the methodlogy is still evolving as FHIR evolves)
  • Keeping current on timelines, objectives, quality criteria and other information distributed by the FMG
  • Monitoring and resolving tracker items associated with resource/page
  • Monitoring the Disqus forum for *all* associated pages for questions/comments (e.g. value set pages, definitions page, etc.)
  • Responding to questions raised on the FHIR list and/or implementer's skype chat when forwarded to the WG's list and/or co-chairs
  • Dealing with ballot reconciliation related to the page/resource and accompanying value sets
  • Deciding what changes to make to the page/resource
  • Applying all changes resulting from the above to the SVN repository
  • Reviewing HL7-project-developed profiles associated with the resource
  • Defining "common" extensions associated with the resource
  • Consulting with all work groups listed as "interested" in resources owned by the WG

In performing all of the above, the WG is expected to adhere to FHIR methodology and core principles.

• E.g. "Only include in the core specification what 80% of existing systems (across full spectrum of countries and implementation types) currently do"
• Adherence to the methodology and core principles is overseen first by the FMG and then the FGB. Unresolved issues may be escalated to the TSC

Final authority relating to the balloting of artifacts, including whether or at what level they will be balloted (draft, DSTU or Normative) rests with the FMG, though such decisions are informed by the recommendations of the owning WG.

The owning work group will be listed on specification for each page.

Interested Work Groups

While each resource and page can only have a single owner, there may be more than one WG with domain expertise in the area of a resource or page or who will need to make use of a resource to convey primary domain content. These additional work groups can be added to the resource tracking sheet. While not having formal responsibility for the maintenance of the FHIR artifact, "interested" work groups are expected to monitor changes to the resource and to discuss issues of mutual interest with the owning work group. If issues arise where mutual agreement can't be achieved, they may be raised to the FMG.

Interested work groups that do not own any resources of their own will still be listed as "contributors" to the FHIR specification.