NHSDigital-NamingSystem-1

A natural language name identifying the naming system. This name should be usable as an identifier for the module by machine processing applications such as code generation.

Support human navigation and code generation.

The name is not expected to be globally unique. The name should be a simple alpha-numeric type name to ensure that it is computable friendly. The"symbolic name" for an OID would be captured as an extension.

The status of this naming system. Enables tracking the life-cycle of the content.

Allows filtering of naming systems that are appropriate for use vs. not.
This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not use a retired naming system without due consideration.

Indicates the purpose for the naming system - what kinds of things does it make unique?

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

The date (and optionally time) when the naming system was published. The date must change if and when the business version changes and it must change if the status code changes. In addition, it should change when the substantive content of the naming system changes.

Note that this is not the same as the resource last-modified-date, since the resource may be a secondary representation of the naming system. Additional specific dates may be added as extensions or be found by consulting Provenances associated with past versions of the resource.

The name of the individual or organization that published the naming system.

Helps establish the "authority/credibility" of the naming system. May also allow for contact.

Usually an organization, but may be an individual. The publisher (or steward) of the naming system is the organization or individual primarily responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the naming system. This is not necessarily the same individual or organization that developed and initially authored the content. The publisher is the primary point of contact for questions or issues with the naming system. This item SHOULD be populated unless the information is available from context.

The name of an individual to contact.

If there is no named individual, the telecom information is for the organization as a whole.

Telecommunications form for contact point - what communications system is required to make use of the contact.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

The actual contact point details, in a form that is meaningful to the designated communication system (i.e. phone number or email address).

Need to support legacy numbers that are not in a tightly controlled format.

Additional text data such as phone extension numbers, or notes about use of the contact are sometimes included in the value.

Identifies the purpose for the contact point.

Need to track the way a person uses this contact, so a user can choose which is appropriate for their purpose.

This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not mistake a temporary or old contact etc.for a current/permanent one. Applications can assume that a contact is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.

Specifies a preferred order in which to use a set of contacts. Contacts are ranked with lower values coming before higher values.

Note that rank does not necessarily follow the order in which the contacts are represented in the instance.

The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.

If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.

The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means that the period is ongoing. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.

The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has a end value of 2012-02-03.

If the end of the period is missing, it means that the period is ongoing

The name of the organization that is responsible for issuing identifiers or codes for this namespace and ensuring their non-collision.

This is the primary organization. Responsibility for some aspects of a namespace may be delegated.

The identification of the code system that defines the meaning of the symbol in the code.

Need to be unambiguous about the source of the definition of the symbol.

The URI may be an OID (urn:oid:...) or a UUID (urn:uuid:...). OIDs and UUIDs SHALL be references to the HL7 OID registry. Otherwise, the URI should come from HL7's list of FHIR defined special URIs or it should de-reference to some definition that establish the system clearly and unambiguously.

The version of the code system which was used when choosing this code. Note that a well-maintained code system does not need the version reported, because the meaning of codes is consistent across versions. However this cannot consistently be assured. and when the meaning is not guaranteed to be consistent, the version SHOULD be exchanged.

Where the terminology does not clearly define what string should be used to identify code system versions, the recommendation is to use the date (expressed in FHIR date format) on which that version was officially published as the version date.

A symbol in syntax defined by the system. The symbol may be a predefined code or an expression in a syntax defined by the coding system (e.g. post-coordination).

Need to refer to a particular code in the system.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

A representation of the meaning of the code in the system, following the rules of the system.

Need to be able to carry a human-readable meaning of the code for readers that do not know the system.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

Indicates that this coding was chosen by a user directly - i.e. off a pick list of available items (codes or displays).

This has been identified as a clinical safety criterium - that this exact system/code pair was chosen explicitly, rather than inferred by the system based on some rules or language processing.

Amongst a set of alternatives, a directly chosen code is the most appropriate starting point for new translations. There is some ambiguity about what exactly 'directly chosen' implies, and trading partner agreement may be needed to clarify the use of this element and its consequences more completely.

A human language representation of the concept as seen/selected/uttered by the user who entered the data and/or which represents the intended meaning of the user.

The codes from the terminologies do not always capture the correct meaning with all the nuances of the human using them, or sometimes there is no appropriate code at all. In these cases, the text is used to capture the full meaning of the source.

Very often the text is the same as a displayName of one of the codings.

A free text natural language description of the naming system from a consumer's perspective. Details about what the namespace identifies including scope, granularity, version labeling, etc.

This description can be used to capture details such as why the naming system was built, comments about misuse, instructions for clinical use and interpretation, literature references, examples from the paper world, etc. It is not a rendering of the naming system as conveyed in the 'text' field of the resource itself. This item SHOULD be populated unless the information is available from context (e.g. the language of the profile is presumed to be the predominant language in the place the profile was created).

The identification of the code system that defines the meaning of the symbol in the code.

Need to be unambiguous about the source of the definition of the symbol.

The URI may be an OID (urn:oid:...) or a UUID (urn:uuid:...). OIDs and UUIDs SHALL be references to the HL7 OID registry. Otherwise, the URI should come from HL7's list of FHIR defined special URIs or it should de-reference to some definition that establish the system clearly and unambiguously.

The version of the code system which was used when choosing this code. Note that a well-maintained code system does not need the version reported, because the meaning of codes is consistent across versions. However this cannot consistently be assured. and when the meaning is not guaranteed to be consistent, the version SHOULD be exchanged.

Where the terminology does not clearly define what string should be used to identify code system versions, the recommendation is to use the date (expressed in FHIR date format) on which that version was officially published as the version date.

A symbol in syntax defined by the system. The symbol may be a predefined code or an expression in a syntax defined by the coding system (e.g. post-coordination).

Need to refer to a particular code in the system.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

A representation of the meaning of the code in the system, following the rules of the system.

Need to be able to carry a human-readable meaning of the code for readers that do not know the system.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

Indicates that this coding was chosen by a user directly - i.e. off a pick list of available items (codes or displays).

This has been identified as a clinical safety criterium - that this exact system/code pair was chosen explicitly, rather than inferred by the system based on some rules or language processing.

Amongst a set of alternatives, a directly chosen code is the most appropriate starting point for new translations. There is some ambiguity about what exactly 'directly chosen' implies, and trading partner agreement may be needed to clarify the use of this element and its consequences more completely.

The identification of the code system that defines the meaning of the symbol in the code.

Need to be unambiguous about the source of the definition of the symbol.

The URI may be an OID (urn:oid:...) or a UUID (urn:uuid:...). OIDs and UUIDs SHALL be references to the HL7 OID registry. Otherwise, the URI should come from HL7's list of FHIR defined special URIs or it should de-reference to some definition that establish the system clearly and unambiguously.

The version of the code system which was used when choosing this code. Note that a well-maintained code system does not need the version reported, because the meaning of codes is consistent across versions. However this cannot consistently be assured. and when the meaning is not guaranteed to be consistent, the version SHOULD be exchanged.

Where the terminology does not clearly define what string should be used to identify code system versions, the recommendation is to use the date (expressed in FHIR date format) on which that version was officially published as the version date.

A symbol in syntax defined by the system. The symbol may be a predefined code or an expression in a syntax defined by the coding system (e.g. post-coordination).

Need to refer to a particular code in the system.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

A representation of the meaning of the code in the system, following the rules of the system.

Need to be able to carry a human-readable meaning of the code for readers that do not know the system.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

Indicates that this coding was chosen by a user directly - i.e. off a pick list of available items (codes or displays).

This has been identified as a clinical safety criterium - that this exact system/code pair was chosen explicitly, rather than inferred by the system based on some rules or language processing.

Amongst a set of alternatives, a directly chosen code is the most appropriate starting point for new translations. There is some ambiguity about what exactly 'directly chosen' implies, and trading partner agreement may be needed to clarify the use of this element and its consequences more completely.

A human language representation of the concept as seen/selected/uttered by the user who entered the data and/or which represents the intended meaning of the user.

The codes from the terminologies do not always capture the correct meaning with all the nuances of the human using them, or sometimes there is no appropriate code at all. In these cases, the text is used to capture the full meaning of the source.

Very often the text is the same as a displayName of one of the codings.

Provides guidance on the use of the namespace, including the handling of formatting characters, use of upper vs. lower case, etc.

Note that FHIR strings may not exceed 1MB in size

Identifies the unique identifier scheme used for this particular identifier.

Different identifier types may be used in different types of communications (OIDs for v3, URIs for FHIR, etc.). Other includes RUIDs from v3, standard v2 code name strings, etc.

The string that should be sent over the wire to identify the code system or identifier system.

If the value is a URI intended for use as FHIR system identifier, the URI should not contain "" or "?" or "," since this makes escaping very difficult.

Indicates whether this identifier is the "preferred" identifier of this type.

If there are multiple ids, and one is labeled "preferred", then the assumption is that the others are not preferred. In the absence of any id marked as preferred, no inference can be drawn

Notes about the past or intended usage of this identifier.

e.g. "must be used in Germany" or "was initially published in error with this value".

The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.

If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.

The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means that the period is ongoing. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.

The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has a end value of 2012-02-03.

If the end of the period is missing, it means that the period is ongoing

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.

An identifier for the other resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity 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.

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.