Observation FHIR Resource Proposal

Observation

Owning committee name

Orders & Observations WG

Interested Work Groups

• All

FHIR Resource Development Project Insight ID

952

Scope of coverage

DEFINITION (OBSERVATION):

The observation resource covers simple as well as complex assertions and measurements made about a patient, device or other subject.

RIM scope

• ACT: Observation (ClassCode=OBS and descendants)
• ACT: Observation (Code=ObservationType)

Resource appropriateness

Observations are a central element in healthcare, used to support diagnosis, monitor progress, determine baselines and patterns and even capture demographic characteristics. Fundamentally, observations are simple name/value pair assertions with little structure, though there are several resources such as DiagnosticReport to manage and represent rich aggregation patterns for observations. Expected uses for this resource include:

• Vital signs: temperature, blood pressure, respiration rate
• Laboratory Data and other Diagnostic Measures
• Measurements emitted by Devices
• Clinical assessments such as APGAR
• Personal characteristics: height, weight, eye-color
• Diagnoses (Note: track-able conditions, allergies, adverse reactions and more complex structures are handled elsewhere)
• Social history: tobacco use, family supports, cognitive status
• Core characteristics: pregnancy status, death assertion

Expected implementations

??

Content sources

• HL7 v3 Laboratory Standard - Normative
• HL7 v3 Other?
• HL7 v2.x
• HL7 OO Specimen DAM Project

Resource Relationships

• Order
• OrderResponse ?
• DiagnosticReport
• ImagingStudy ?
• Problem

Timelines

• Vote by WG (Ready for ballot): July 2013
• Ballot: September 2013

gForge Users

• Lorraine Constable
• Patrick Loyd