Important: All content in this FHIR Implementation Guide is under development

DataStandardsWales-Specimen

The Specimen resource contains information about a sample to be used for analysis.

The DataStandardsWales-Specimen profile will be derived from the UK Core Specimen Profile which is an asset in development and so not yet in STU, it can be found in the UK Core Implementation Guide Assets in Development. The DataStandardsWales-Specimen defines additional rules for use within health and care organisations in Wales.

Formal Views of Profile Content

statusΣ ?!0..1codeBinding
receivedTimeS Σ0..1dateTime
conditionΣ0..*CodeableConceptBinding
receivedTimeS Σ0..1dateTime
statusΣ ?!0..1codeBinding
receivedTimeS Σ0..1dateTime
conditionΣ0..*CodeableConceptBinding

Mandatory and Must Support Data Elements

When an element is mandatory (min=1), the data is expected to always be present. Elements marked with an S must be supported by both producing and receiving systems and SHOULD be populated if the data exists.

Each Specimen must have:

  1. A Type coding defining what the specimen is *
  2. A patient/subject reference *

Each Specimen must support:

  1. An identifier *
  2. A container
  3. A receivedTime
  4. A request reference
  5. A collection datetime

*see Implementation Guidance for the identifier element below

Implementation Guidance

  • The Specimen.type field SHALL be populated.
  • The Specimen.subject reference field SHALL be populated.

  • The Specimen.identifier field SHOULD contain all available identifiers. Typical identifiers include:
    • Identifiers assigned to the Specimen by the Welsh Results and Reporting Service

Example Specimens

The following example resources are provided within this guide: Example Specimen - Blood, Example Specimen - Urine

Mandatory Search Parameters

The following search parameters and search parameter combinations SHALL be supported:

  1. SHALL support fetching a Specimen using the _id search parameter:

    GET [base]/Specimen[id]
    

    Example:

    • GET \[base\]/Specimen/500011819107
    • GET \[base\]/Specimen?\_id=500011819107

    Implementation Notes: (how to search by the logical id of the resource)

  2. SHALL support searching using the combination of the patient and type search parameters:

    • including optional support for OR search on type (e.g.type={system|}[type],{system|}[type],...)
    GET [base]/Specimen?patient={Type/}[id]&type={system|[type]{,{system|}[type],...}
    

    Example:

    • GET \[base\]/Specimen?patient=Patient/NN046351-149&type=https://fhir.nhs.wales/Id/wrrs-specimen-type-code|blood

    Implementation Notes: Fetches a bundle of all Specimen resources for the specified patient and specimen type(s). SHOULD support search by multiple specimen types. (how to search by reference and how to search by token)

Optional Search Parameters

The following search parameters and search parameter combinations SHOULD be supported:

  1. SHOULD support searching using the combination of the patient and type and collected search parameters:

    • including optional support for OR search on type (e.g.type={system|}[type],{system|}[type],...)
    • including support for these collected comparators: gt,lt,ge,le
    • including optional support for AND search on collected (e.g.collected=[date]&collected=[date]]&...)
    GET [base]/Specimen?patient={Type/}[id]&type={system|[type]{,{system|}[type],...}&collected={gt|lt|ge|le}[date]{&collected={gt|lt|ge|le}[date]&...}
    

    Example:

    • GET \[base\]/Specimen?patient=Patient/NN046351-149&type=https://fhir.nhs.wales/Id/wrrs-specimen-type-code|blood&collected=ge2019-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Implementation Notes: Fetches a bundle of all Specimen resources for the specified patient and date and specimen type(s). SHOULD support search by multiple specimen types. (how to search by reference and how to search by token and how to search by date)