FHIR R4 Diagnostics API

Diagnostics API includes following FHIR R4 Profiles:

Observation

Observations are a central element in healthcare, used to support diagnosis, monitor progress, determine baselines and patterns and even capture demographic characteristics. Most observations are simple name/value pair assertions with some metadata, but some observations group other observations together logically, or even are multi-component observations. Note that the DiagnosticReport resource provides a clinical or workflow context for a set of observations and the Observation resource is referenced by DiagnosticReport to represent laboratory, imaging, and other clinical and diagnostic data to form a complete report.

Uses for the Observation resource include:

• Vital signs such as body weight, blood pressure, and temperature
• Laboratory Data like blood glucose, or an estimated GFR
• Imaging results like bone density or fetal measurements
• Clinical Findings such as abdominal tenderness
• Device measurements such as EKG data or Pulse Oximetry data
• Clinical assessment tools such as APGAR or a Glasgow Coma Score
• Personal characteristics: such as eye-color
• Social history like tobacco use, family support, or cognitive status
• Core characteristics like pregnancy status, or a death assertion

DiagnosticReport

The DiagnosticReport resource has information about the diagnostic report itself, and about the subject and, in the case of laboratory tests, the specimen of the report. It can also refer to the request details and atomic observations details or image instances. Report conclusions can be expressed as a simple text blob, structured coded data or as an attached fully formatted report such as a PDF.

The DiagnosticReport resource is suitable for the following kinds of diagnostic reports:

• Laboratory (Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Microbiology, etc.)
• Pathology / Histopathology / related disciplines
• Imaging Investigations (x-ray, CT, MRI etc.)
• Other diagnostics - Cardiology, Gastroenterology etc.