Releases Notes

Release Notes

Date FHIR Release Package Notes
May ** 2023 Pharmacy Claim Standard, EG PCS1.0.0 PKGW 123 This is the initial release of the Canadian FHIR Pharmacy eClaims Standard

Release Management / Message Versionning

Over time we can expect that new releases of the specificaiton and new versions of the IG will become available.

The IG release number will be identified using the format "Major.Minor.Publication", eg 1.2.3., where 1=Major, 2=Minor and 3= Publication. Only the Major and Minor changes will impact the package and validator.

The message version number will be the "Major.minor" and this is identified in the message instance.

Type Description Example Scenario Example IG Version Example Message Version
Major Substantive Changes and/or breaking changes where updates to message structure required New mandatory element is added, new transaction type is added 2.0.0 2.0
Minor An update that includes minor substantive changes (potentially including limited breaking changes) New/optional extension is added, new data element becomes supported/optional 1.2.1 1.2
Publication No substantive changes; typically for terminology updates, wording updates only
Applies only to the IG version
Value set is updated to include additional values, New example message is added.
Note: This is NOT identified in the message instance as they are not updated when there is a new publication of the IG
1.1.2 1.1

Release Identification, Message Instance

  1. On the inbound message, we will find the release identified as Major.minor (eg 1.0) in the Bundle.meta.tag:version.code. Note: The "publication" is not used in the message instance and will only be part of the Implementation Guide (IG) release number.

  2. For Major releases and minor releases with impact to the structure defintions/validation, the Bundle.profile and Message Header.profile will include a reference to the release (eg 1.0). These profile identifers are used to validate the message instance against a particular version of the profiles.
    Example: http: /pharmacyeClaims.ca/FHIR/1.0/StructureDefinition/profile-Bundle

  3. The release number is not identified within the API specification which allows the same API to be used for multiple versions of the message. Otherwise, the API would need to change each time there is a new version which is not desirable. discuss


Packages

As part of the IG, a published "package" will be available. This will include all profiles, value sets, examples and capability statements. It can be downloaded to a FHIR server and used to validate message instances against the specified profiles.

##Maintenance It is expected that releases will be tightly managed and that all new Packages will be published for major and minor changes. Each publication will include a full list of changes to the prior version.