Standard Specification

FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources) is a set of specifications that can be used across healthcare information processes, in all jurisdictions, and in many different contexts. Implementers use the specifications as a basic building-block to solve complex issues in the healthcare industry. The specifications are based on a pre-defined structure, which is straightforward and easy to understand. Even though the FHIR specifications have been made as simple as possible, they are intended to solve complex problems, and implementers must work to understand their details before creating solutions.

Usually, implementers create solutions to address these questions:

  • How will information be exchanged?
  • How are terminologies being used?
  • How will the information be secured?
  • When is information exchanged?
  • What information is going to be exchanged?

Specification Modules

To help implementers find the proper usage of the specification, it is organized into a set of modules. Each module represents a different functional area of the specification, and contains:

  • Scope and Index – Provides information about the content that each module covers, and index entries of important content.
  • Use case – Provides guidance and the best approach for common uses of the module. This is a key resource for implementers familiarizing themselves with the FHIR specification.
  • Security / Privacy – Information
  • Roadmap – Provides overall progress of the content covered by the module.

The modules are organized into 3 groups:

  • Infrastructure
  • Content
  • Reasoning

The following illustration displays the dependencies between the modules – in the downwards flow, with some horizontal dependencies. Implementers should use the content modules based on their requirements, and should use the reasoning module only when they need to do clinical decision support and/or quality measures.

Dependencies in each level are described below.

  1. Foundation – Specifies the prerequisite infrastructure to build the specification.
  2. Implementer Support – Provides guidance material and services for implementers on how to use the specification (http://hl7.org/fhir/implsupport-module.html).
  3. Security & Privacy – Provides necessary documentation to refer and services to create a secure transactional environment.
  4. Conformance – Provides necessary guidelines to keep the process in conformity with the actual principle of the specification, and to define implementation guide.
  5. Terminology – Provides required guidelines to use terminologies that have already been defined in the specification and its related artifacts.
  6. Linked Data – Provides different methods to exchange data.
  7. Administration – Provides basic resources for tracking patients, practitioners, organizations, devices, substances, etc.
  8. Clinical – Specifics to maintain a clinical record of patients such as health problems, allergies, care plans, etc., and to make them interoperable to use by concerned entities whenever required.
  9. Diagnostics – Specifies to have a record of diagnostic data, such as doctor’s observations, diagnostic reports, etc. It helps patients to carry the diagnostic record with them for further reference, thereby avoiding the recurring cost in doing the same diagnosis.
  10. Medications – Specifies medication management and immunization tracking.
  11. Workflow – Specifies to manage the process of care, and technical artifacts to do with obligation management.
  12. Financial – Specifies to provide the details of insurance eligibility of patients and explanation of each benefit availed by them during the treatment.
  13. Clinical Reasoning – Provides clinical decision support and quality measures.