The period during which the activity occurred.

The period can be a little arbitrary; where possible, the time should correspond to human assessment of the activity time.

A free text description of the outcome of the event.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

The purposeOfUse (reason) that was used during the event being recorded.

Use AuditEvent.agent.purposeOfUse when you know that it is specific to the agent, otherwise use AuditEvent.purposeOfEvent. For example, during a machine-to-machine transfer it might not be obvious to the audit system who caused the event, but it does know why.

The reason the activity took place.

The security role that the user was acting under, that come from local codes defined by the access control security system (e.g. RBAC, ABAC) used in the local context.

This value ties an audited event to a user's role(s). It is an optional value that might be used to group events for analysis by user functional role categories.

Should be roles relevant to the event. Should not be an exhaustive list of roles.

What security role enabled the agent to participate in the event.

A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.

Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.

The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.

The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).

This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.

Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).

Alternative agent Identifier. For a human, this should be a user identifier text string from authentication system. This identifier would be one known to a common authentication system (e.g. single sign-on), if available.

In some situations, a human user may authenticate with one identity but, to access a specific application system, may use a synonymous identify. For example, some "single sign on" implementations will do this. The alternative identifier would then be the original identify used for authentication, and the User ID is the one known to and used by the application.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

Human-meaningful name for the agent.

The User ID and Authorization User ID may be internal or otherwise obscure values. This field assists the auditor in identifying the actual user.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

Indicator that the user is or is not the requestor, or initiator, for the event being audited.

This value is used to distinguish between requestor-users and recipient-users. For example, one person may initiate a report-output to be sent to another user.

There can only be one initiator. If the initiator is not clear, then do not choose any one agent as the initiator.

Where the event occurred.

References SHALL be a reference to an actual FHIR resource, and SHALL be resolveable (allowing for access control, temporary unavailability, etc.). Resolution can be either by retrieval from the URL, or, where applicable by resource type, by treating an absolute reference as a canonical URL and looking it up in a local registry/repository.

The policy or plan that authorized the activity being recorded. Typically, a single activity may have multiple applicable policies, such as patient consent, guarantor funding, etc. The policy would also indicate the security token used.

This value is used retrospectively to determine the authorization policies.

For example: Where an OAuth token authorizes, the unique identifier from the OAuth token is placed into the policy element Where a policy engine (e.g. XACML) holds policy logic, the unique policy identifier is placed into the policy element.

Type of media involved. Used when the event is about exporting/importing onto media.

Usually, this is used instead of specifying a network address. This field is not used for Media Id (i.e. the serial number of a CD).

Codes may be defined very casually in enumerations or code lists, up to very formal definitions such as SNOMED CT - see the HL7 v3 Core Principles for more information.

Used when the event is about exporting/importing onto media.

An identifier for the network access point of the user device for the audit event.

This datum identifies the user's network access point, which may be distinct from the server that performed the action. It is an optional value that may be used to group events recorded on separate servers for analysis of a specific network access point's data access across all servers.

This could be a device id, IP address or some other identifier associated with a device.

An identifier for the type of network access point that originated the audit event.

This datum identifies the type of network access point identifier of the user device for the audit event. It is an optional value that may be used to group events recorded on separate servers for analysis of access according to a network access point's type.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

The type of network access point of this agent in the audit event.

The reason (purpose of use), specific to this agent, that was used during the event being recorded.

Use AuditEvent.agent.purposeOfUse when you know that is specific to the agent, otherwise use AuditEvent.purposeOfEvent. For example, during a machine-to-machine transfer it might not be obvious to the audit system who caused the event, but it does know why.

The reason the activity took place.

Logical source location within the healthcare enterprise network. For example, a hospital or other provider location within a multi-entity provider group.

This value differentiates among the sites in a multi-site enterprise health information system.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.

Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.

The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.

The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).

This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.

Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).

Code specifying the type of source where event originated.

This field indicates which type of source is identified by the Audit Source ID. It is an optional value that may be used to group events for analysis according to the type of source where the event occurred.

Codes may be defined very casually in enumerations or code lists, up to very formal definitions such as SNOMED CT - see the HL7 v3 Core Principles for more information.

Code specifying the type of system that detected and recorded the event.

Identifies a specific instance of the entity. The reference should be version specific.

References SHALL be a reference to an actual FHIR resource, and SHALL be resolveable (allowing for access control, temporary unavailability, etc.). Resolution can be either by retrieval from the URL, or, where applicable by resource type, by treating an absolute reference as a canonical URL and looking it up in a local registry/repository.

The type of the object that was involved in this audit event.

To describe the object being acted upon. In addition to queries on the subject of the action in an auditable event, it is also important to be able to query on the object type for the action.

This value is distinct from the user's role or any user relationship to the entity.

Code for the entity type involved in the audit event.

Code representing the role the entity played in the event being audited.

For some detailed audit analysis it may be necessary to indicate a more granular type of entity, based on the application role it serves.

Codes may be defined very casually in enumerations or code lists, up to very formal definitions such as SNOMED CT - see the HL7 v3 Core Principles for more information.

Code representing the role the entity played in the audit event.

Identifier for the data life-cycle stage for the entity.

Institutional policies for privacy and security may optionally fall under different accountability rules based on data life cycle. This provides a differentiating value for those cases.

This can be used to provide an audit trail for data, over time, as it passes through the system.

Identifier for the data life-cycle stage for the entity.

Security labels for the identified entity.

This field identifies the security labels for a specific instance of an object, such as a patient, to detect/track privacy and security issues.

Copied from entity meta security tags.

Security Labels from the Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System.

A name of the entity in the audit event.

Use only where entity can't be identified with an identifier.

This field may be used in a query/report to identify audit events for a specific person. For example, where multiple synonymous entity identifiers (patient number, medical record number, encounter number, etc.) have been used.

Text that describes the entity in more detail.

Use only where entity can't be identified with an identifier.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

The query parameters for a query-type entities.

For query events, it may be necessary to capture the actual query input to the query process in order to identify the specific event. Because of differences among query implementations and data encoding for them, this is a base 64 encoded data blob. It may be subsequently decoded or interpreted by downstream audit analysis processing.

The meaning and secondary-encoding of the content of base64 encoded blob is specific to the AuditEvent.type, AuditEvent.subtype, AuditEvent.entity.type, and AuditEvent.entity.role. The base64 is a general-use and safe container for event specific data blobs regardless of the encoding used by the transaction being recorded. An AuditEvent consuming application must understand the event it is consuming and the formats used by the event. For example, if auditing an Oracle network database access, the Oracle formats must be understood as they will be simply encoded in the base64binary blob.

An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.

When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.

When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference

Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.

Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).

Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.

This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.

The type of the object that was involved in this audit event.

To describe the object being acted upon. In addition to queries on the subject of the action in an auditable event, it is also important to be able to query on the object type for the action.

This value is distinct from the user's role or any user relationship to the entity.

Code for the entity type involved in the audit event.

Code representing the role the entity played in the event being audited.

For some detailed audit analysis it may be necessary to indicate a more granular type of entity, based on the application role it serves.

Codes may be defined very casually in enumerations or code lists, up to very formal definitions such as SNOMED CT - see the HL7 v3 Core Principles for more information.

Code representing the role the entity played in the audit event.

Identifier for the data life-cycle stage for the entity.

Institutional policies for privacy and security may optionally fall under different accountability rules based on data life cycle. This provides a differentiating value for those cases.

This can be used to provide an audit trail for data, over time, as it passes through the system.

Identifier for the data life-cycle stage for the entity.

Security labels for the identified entity.

This field identifies the security labels for a specific instance of an object, such as a patient, to detect/track privacy and security issues.

Copied from entity meta security tags.

Security Labels from the Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System.

A name of the entity in the audit event.

Use only where entity can't be identified with an identifier.

This field may be used in a query/report to identify audit events for a specific person. For example, where multiple synonymous entity identifiers (patient number, medical record number, encounter number, etc.) have been used.

Text that describes the entity in more detail.

Use only where entity can't be identified with an identifier.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

The query parameters for a query-type entities.

For query events, it may be necessary to capture the actual query input to the query process in order to identify the specific event. Because of differences among query implementations and data encoding for them, this is a base 64 encoded data blob. It may be subsequently decoded or interpreted by downstream audit analysis processing.

The meaning and secondary-encoding of the content of base64 encoded blob is specific to the AuditEvent.type, AuditEvent.subtype, AuditEvent.entity.type, and AuditEvent.entity.role. The base64 is a general-use and safe container for event specific data blobs regardless of the encoding used by the transaction being recorded. An AuditEvent consuming application must understand the event it is consuming and the formats used by the event. For example, if auditing an Oracle network database access, the Oracle formats must be understood as they will be simply encoded in the base64binary blob.

An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.

When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.

When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference

Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.

Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).

Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.

This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.

The type of the object that was involved in this audit event.

To describe the object being acted upon. In addition to queries on the subject of the action in an auditable event, it is also important to be able to query on the object type for the action.

This value is distinct from the user's role or any user relationship to the entity.

Code for the entity type involved in the audit event.

Code representing the role the entity played in the event being audited.

For some detailed audit analysis it may be necessary to indicate a more granular type of entity, based on the application role it serves.

Codes may be defined very casually in enumerations or code lists, up to very formal definitions such as SNOMED CT - see the HL7 v3 Core Principles for more information.

Code representing the role the entity played in the audit event.

Identifier for the data life-cycle stage for the entity.

Institutional policies for privacy and security may optionally fall under different accountability rules based on data life cycle. This provides a differentiating value for those cases.

This can be used to provide an audit trail for data, over time, as it passes through the system.

Identifier for the data life-cycle stage for the entity.

Security labels for the identified entity.

This field identifies the security labels for a specific instance of an object, such as a patient, to detect/track privacy and security issues.

Copied from entity meta security tags.

Security Labels from the Healthcare Privacy and Security Classification System.

Text that describes the entity in more detail.

Use only where entity can't be identified with an identifier.

Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size

The query parameters for a query-type entities.

For query events, it may be necessary to capture the actual query input to the query process in order to identify the specific event. Because of differences among query implementations and data encoding for them, this is a base 64 encoded data blob. It may be subsequently decoded or interpreted by downstream audit analysis processing.

The meaning and secondary-encoding of the content of base64 encoded blob is specific to the AuditEvent.type, AuditEvent.subtype, AuditEvent.entity.type, and AuditEvent.entity.role. The base64 is a general-use and safe container for event specific data blobs regardless of the encoding used by the transaction being recorded. An AuditEvent consuming application must understand the event it is consuming and the formats used by the event. For example, if auditing an Oracle network database access, the Oracle formats must be understood as they will be simply encoded in the base64binary blob.