Questionnaire Resource Proposal

Questionnaire

Owning committee name

Orders_&_Observations_WG (temporarily owned by Core team)

Contributing or Reviewing Work Groups

• Patient Care
• RCRIM

FHIR Resource Development Project Insight ID

Pending

Scope of coverage

The resources covers artifacts containing sets of answers to predefined lists of questions, a.k.a. questionnaires or "forms". These forms cover the need to communicate data originating from medical history examinations, research questionnaires and sometimes full clinical speciality records.

There is possible overlap between the information covered by Questionnaires and other Resources (FamilyHistory, MedicationStatement, Observation, Procedure, etc.), the process of collection and recording differ: Questionnaires record specifics about data capture - exactly what questions were asked, in what order, what choices for answers were, etc. Data captured using a Questionnaire frequently can (and should) be used to populate other resources. For example, questions about allergies would be used to populate AllergyIntolerance instances, questions about medications would be used to populate MedicationStatement, etc. Capturing a populated Questionnaire resource is instances is only important when there's a need to record the raw data, for example in clinical studies, or where there's no mechanism to capture the desired data (unlikely given that Observation can capture pretty much anything).

Questionnaires differ from Lists because Lists regroup or summarize existing information, while Questionnaires contain original, clinician collected data.

Similarly questionnaires are similar to Documents. However, the purpose of a questionnaire is the capture of raw data as opposed to the assertion of information intended for long term persistence and use.

The Questionnaire resource is used to capture answers, but also provides a mechanism to include the definition (i.e. text, choices, repeats) of the questions on the form or questionnaire.

RIM scope

Observation

Resource appropriateness

Questionnaires and forms are part of any patient file and cover a large portion of the (semi-structured) data kept for a patient. In many systems this data is collected using user-defined screens and forms. These forms (especially the physical forms) are normally numbered and kept in the patient file for reference.

Expected implementations

Questionnaires and (digital) forms are supported by most, if not all, hospital information systems.

Content sources

• CDISC's CDASH specification, XForms, present experience in the core team and interested early adopters.

Example Scenarios

Examples of Questionnaires are:

• Past medical history (PMH)
• Family diseases
• Social history
• Research questionnaires
• Quality and evaluation forms

Resource Relationships

The resource references the Encounter, Patient, Practitioner and RelatedPerson. It is most probably only referred to by Document.

Timelines

Expected to be ready for the sept 2013 DSTU ballot

gForge Users

ewoutkramer

Issues

• Have revised the scope description differentiating Questionaire from Observation/Procedure/etc.
• RIM scope needs to be defined in a manner that distinguishes Questionaire from the general Observation resource and other resources such as AllergyIntolerance, problem, etc. (Also need to indicate classCode, moodCode, etc.) Not sure that Observation is the correct root. Document, container or grouper might be better. Not sure what the "question" is for the root class.
• Are any resources expected to have relationships *to* Questionnaire? EK: Not that I know of, that's why I didn't specify any. But maybe Document?
• Also need to talk about the Evidence relationship.
• Need example scenarios