Binding Realms provide "bounded areas of interoperability" in which a concepts can be expected to be communicated with a common set of codes. They exist because of the recognition that there can be variations in terminologies required across geographies, cultures, types of patient (human vs. veterinary; pediatric vs. geriatric) and even type of medicine.
MIF Reference: mif-model-vocabulary.xsd/BindingRealm
| Requirement
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Each binding realm must have a unique name
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| Rationale
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The binding realm must be able to be precisely referenced when creating context bindings. It also needs to be referenced within instances or profiles to declare what "context" applies for that instance.
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| MIF
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mif-model-vocabulary.xsd/BindingRealm/@name
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| Requirement
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Each binding realm must have a description
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| Rationale
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In order to know what binding realm to use when referencing a particular context, you need to know what that context is
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| MIF
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mif-model-vocabulary.xsd/BindingRealm/description
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| Requirement
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Each binding realm must have a responsible affiliate
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| Rationale
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Because realm bindings are so essential to interoperability, the ability to construct new ones is limited to HL7.org and to HL7 affiliates. That prevents the proliferation of new "contexts" by any organization that doesn't want to follow the vocabularies chosen at a higher level.
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| MIF
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mif-model-vocabulary.xsd/BindingRealm/@owningAffiliate
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| Requirement
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The set of binding realms must be tightly constrained
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| Rationale
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Binding realms are a key part of interoperability. If you don't know the binding realm, you don't know what terminologies are allowed. In addition, names must be maintained unique within a single universal namespace. Therefore there needs to be a consistent source for what binding realms exist and may be used
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| Methodology
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HL7.org maintains the sole list of binding realms that may be used. Affiliates are allowed to create binding realms beneath their own HL7-assigned binding realm, but these "sub-binding realms" must be registered with HL7.org
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