FHIR R4 Symptoms Implementation Guide, published by HL7 International / Clinical Interoperability Council. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 0.1.0 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/HL7/fhir-symptoms-ig/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

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Overview

The purpose and rationale for this guide center around the absence of standardized definitions and formats for symptoms data that hinders effective sharing across providers, leading to data silos and interruptions in critical diagnostic thinking. This initiative aims to decrease missed, delayed, or inaccurate diagnoses by enhancing the documentation and exchange of symptoms, a crucial step in the diagnostic process.

This guide provides FHIR profiles that structure symptom data for seamless exchange across visits and health systems. This will enhance recognition of symptom patterns, reducing clinician burden by streamlining the diagnostic process, and ultimately support informed diagnostic decision-making, improving outcomes for patients.

Content and Organization

This implementation guide (and the menu for it) is organized into the following sections:

• Background - Supporting informative pages that do not set conformence expectations
  • Reading this IG points to key pages in the FHIR spec that must be understood in order to understand this guide
  • Use Cases gives examples of symptoms and how they are recorded using the profiles in the guide
  • Projects and Participants identifies the individuals and organizations involved in developing this implementation guide
• Specification - Pages that set conformance expectations
  • Conformance Expectations defines base language and expectations for declaring conformance with the guide
  • Exchange Patterns defines how Symptoms are to be searched for and exchanged
• FHIR Artifacts
  • Artifacts points to the complete list of artifacts defined in this guide
  • Terminology lists all of the value sets that are defined in this guide
• Support - Links to help with the use of this guide
  • Discussion Forum is a place to ask questions about the guide and discuss potential issues
  • Project Home includes information about project calls, agendas, past minutes, and instructions on how to participate
  • Project Dashboard shows new and historical issues that have been logged against the specification
  • Propose a Change allows formal submission of requests for change to the specification
• Change Log lists all of the changes between versions of the guide

Dependencies

IP Statements

This publication includes IP covered under the following statements.

• Publications of the World Health Organization enjoy copyright protection in accordance with the provisions of Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights reserved.
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  • International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: FunctionalClassification and SymptomObservation
• The UCUM codes, UCUM table (regardless of format), and UCUM Specification are copyright 1999-2009, Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and the Unified Codes for Units of Measures (UCUM) Organization. All rights reserved. https://ucum.org/trac/wiki/TermsOfUse
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  • Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM): SymptomObservation
• This material contains content from LOINC. LOINC is copyright © 1995-2020, Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and the Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) Committee and is available at no cost under the license. LOINC® is a registered United States trademark of Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
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  • LOINC: AffectiveGrade and SymptomObservation
• This material contains content that is copyright of SNOMED International. Implementers of these specifications must have the appropriate SNOMED CT Affiliate license - for more information contact https://www.snomed.org/get-snomed or info@snomed.org.
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  • SNOMED Clinical Terms® (SNOMED CT®): CommonSymptomCodes, SpeedOfOnset, SymptomAbsentObservation and SymptomObservation
• This material derives from the HL7 Terminology (THO). THO is copyright ©1989+ Health Level Seven International and is made available under the CC0 designation. For more licensing information see: https://terminology.hl7.org/license.html
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  • Observation Category Codes: AssessmentScaleObservation