Vital Signs

Introduction

To communicate vital sign observations, the FHIR resource Observation is used. The profiles are used to communicate a limited set of observation data and focuses on the actual value of measurement and other connected sets of information. All vital sign profiles can be used individually to communicate a certain value of a vital sign of a patient. For more information about supported operations, see each profile in the resource section. Some of the vital signs listed here are also used in Growth chart functional area. eg: Body weight, Body Height, Head circumference, Body weight Relative, etc.

Included Profiles

For all vital signs use cases, FHIR Resource observation is used, the following list includes all vital signs profiles on Observation:

• ObservationAcvpuLite - communicates an ACVPU observation of a patient with any of the values Alert, Confusion, Voice, Pain or Unresponsive.
• ObservationAirPassageLite - communicates an air passage observation of a patient with any of the values Clear, Threatened or Obstructed.
• ObservationBodyHeightLite - communicates a patient's body height in cm. The profile defines three different types of body heights: Body height, birth length and sitting height.
• ObservationBodyTemperatureLite - communicates a patient's body temperature in °C.
• ObservationBodyWeightLite - communicates a patient's body weight in kg or g. The profile defines two different types of body weights: Body weight and birth weight.
• ObservationBPLite - communicates a patient's systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
• ObservationBodyHeightRelative - communicates a body height of patient's relative in cm. The profile defines two different types of body heights: Body height of biological father and body heigh of biological mother.
• ObservationBodyWeightRelative - communicates a body weight of patient's relative in kg or g. The profile defines two different types of body weights: Body weight of biological father and body weight of biological mother.
• ObservationHeadCircumferenceLite - communicates patient's head circumference and birth head circumference in cm.
• ObservationHeadCircumferenceRelative - communicates patient's relative's head circumference in cm. The profile defines two different types of head circumference: head circumference of biological father and head circumference of biological mother.
• ObservationHeartRateLite - communicates a patient's heart rate in beats per minute.
• ObservationOxygenSaturationLite - Communicates the oxygen saturation of a patient in percentage and also if the patient has a hypercapnic respiratory failure (extension). The profile references the ObservationInspiredOxygenLite profile as an contained resource.
• ObservationInspiredOxygenLite - used to indicate whether a patient is receiving inspired oxygen. This profile cannot be used on its own but is a contributing attribute to an Oxygen saturation observation.
• ObservationPainNrsLite - communicates a Pain NRS observation of a patient with a rating from 0 to 10.
• ObservationRespiratoryRateLite - communicates respiratory rate of a patient in breaths per minute.

Use Cases

Search

• Search ACVPU observations by patient using ObservationAcvpuLite
• Search air passage observations by patient using ObservationAirPassageLite
• Search for body height observations by patient using ObservationBodyHeightLite
• Search for relative body height observations by patient using ObservationBodyHeightRelative
• Search for body temperature observations by patient using ObservationBodyTemperatureLite
• Search for body weight observations by patient using ObservationBodyWeightLite
• Search for relative body weight observations by patient using ObservationBodyWeightRelative
• Search for blood pressure observations by patient using ObservationBPLite
• Search for head circumference observations by patient using ObservationHeadCircumferenceLite
• Search for relative head circumference observations by patient using ObservationHeadCircumferenceRelative
• Search for heart rate observations by patient using ObservationHeartRateLite
• Search for oxygen saturation observations by patient using ObservationOxygenSaturationLite
• Search for pain NRS observations by patient using ObservationPainNrsLite

Create

• Create ACVPU observations using ObservationAcvpuLite
• Create air passage observations using ObservationAirPassageLite
• Create body height observations using ObservationBodyHeightLite
• Create body temperature observations using ObservationBodyTemperatureLite
• Create body weight observations using ObservationBodyWeightLite
• Create blood pressure observations using ObservationBPLite
• Create heart rate observations using ObservationHeartRateLite
• Create oxygen saturation observations using ObservationOxygenSaturationLite
• Create pain NRS observations using ObservationPainNrsLite

Invalidating

• Invalidating all types of observations that can be created.