Introduction

The purpose of the VRDR FHIR IG is to provide guidance regarding the use of FHIR resources as a conduit for data required in the bidirectional exchange of mortality data between State-run Public Health Agencies (PHA) Vital Records offices and U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Bidirectional exchange of mortality data between PHA Vital Records offices and NCHS is essential to effective public health surveillance and emergency response efforts. Automation of the reporting process adds efficiencies that dramatically improves the efficacy of event response, data analysis, and evidence-based measurable prevention of the causes of death.

The VRDR FHIR IG will provide guidance for the use of standard FHIR resources as a conduit for data required by vital records death reporting. The use of FHIR as a platform for automation of vital records death reporting is expected to improve existing automation by enabling wide-scale adoption and leveraging the potential of electronic health records and clinical decision support systems.

The VRDR FHIR IG will lay a foundation for expansion of automated standards-driven information exchange to include tributary flows of information from entities such as physicians, medical examiners, coroners, funeral directors, and family members to public health agencies and between public health agencies and secondary users of detailed mortality data and aggregate statistics.


VRDR FHIR IG Table of Conents

Page Description
Notifications Included notifications to balloters and implementers of this specification intended to provide references and guidance from each perspective.
Background Provides details regarding the VRDR Project and the VRDR implementation guide development effort.
Profiles Contains the definition and technical specifications for all resource profiles contained in the VRDR IG.
Terminologies Contains the definition and technical specification for code systems, value sets, and fixed values used a terminology bindings for coded resource elements.
Downloads and History Contains links to pages containing VRDR IG artiface available for download.

VRDR Project Team

Project Facilitators:

  • Paula Braun, Entrepreneur in Residence at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Hetty Khan, Health Scientist (Informatics) at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Alaina Elliott, IT Specialist at National Center for Health Statistics

Modeling facilitators:

Business Requirements Analysts:

Specification Developers:

Development Team:

  • Mitre, a not-for-profit organization working in the public interest across federal, state and local governments, as well as industry and academia.

  • Georgia Institute of Technology, a leading research university committed to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology

  • Hi3 Solutions Corporation, a leading HIT vendor providing software solutions and professional services that promote evidence-based best practices in health.


VRDR Project Realm

This is a U.S. Realm Specification. This guide and related materials are based on reporting specifications in U.S. jurisdictions. The data content of this IG are based upon the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death.


Acknowledgements

The content of this implementation guide draws heavily upon Standard Death Record Implementation Guide developed by MITRE.

This guide was developed using tooling and professional guidance provided by Fire.ly, the makers of Forge and Simplifier.net.

The VRDR FHIR IG is a work product of the HL7 Public Health Workgroup. The HL7 Project Insight reference number for this project is 1475.

®Health Level Seven, HL7, CDA, CCD, FHIR and the [FLAME DESIGN]® are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International, registered in the US Trademark Office.