Bulk Retrieval of Public Health Data
2.0.0-ballot - Informative 2 Ballot United States of America flag

Bulk Retrieval of Public Health Data, published by HL7 International / Public Health. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 2.0.0-ballot built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/HL7/us-helios-bulk/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

ExampleScenario: Public Health Bulk Export Example

Official URL: http://hl7.org/fhir/us/ph-bulk-data/ExampleScenario/phBulkExportExampleScenario Version: 2.0.0-ballot
Standards status: Informative Active as of 2026-03-30 Computable Name: PublicHealthBulkExportExample

Actors

NameTypeDescription
Immunization Event Submitters System

Healthcare providers, pharmacies and any other submitter of data related to the administration of vaccines to individuals.

Immunization Program System

The public health program designated to receive and collate information on vaccination events for individuals in the catchment area.

Authorized Users System

Organizations authorized to access and use IIS data to serve indidivuals and populations. Authorized Users may be healthcare providers, payers, schools and other types of organizations.

Diagram

PublicHealthBulkExportExample​PublicHealthBulkExportExample...a_IIS.The public health program designated to receive and collate information on vaccination events for individuals in the catchment area.. Immunization Program.....a_IIS.The public health program designated to receive and collate information on vaccination events for individuals in the catchment area.. Immunization Program.....a_eventSubmitters.Healthcare providers. pharmacies and any other submitter of data related to the administration of vaccines to individuals.. Immunization Event Submitters.....a_IIS.The public health program designated to receive and collate information on vaccination events for individuals in the catchment area.. Immunization Program.....a_authorizedUser.Organizations authorized to access and use IIS data to serve indidivuals and populations. Authorized Users may be healthcare providers. payers. schools and other types of organizations.. Authorized Users..Immunization Event SubmittersImmunization Event SubmittersImmunization ProgramImmunization ProgramAuthorized UsersAuthorized Users...a_IIS.The public health program designated to receive and collate information on vaccination events for individuals in the catchment area.. Immunization Program.....a_IIS.The public health program designated to receive and collate information on vaccination events for individuals in the catchment area.. Immunization Program..Immunization Administration Event Submissiondetails​Immunization Administration Event Submission(payload)Patient Identification Querydetails​Patient Identification Query(payload)​response(payload)Cohort Create or Updatedetails​Cohort Create or Update(payload)Bulk Data Exportdetails​Bulk Data Export(payload)​response(payload)

Processes

Process: Immunization Administration Event Submission

Immunization Event Submitters administer vaccines to individual (or records historical administrations) and submit that data to their local IIS, typically using the HL7 v2 VXU message type. IIS receive and integrate data from a large number of unique Data Submitters.

Pre-conditions:

The Data Submitter records discrete details about the immunization event.

Post-conditions:

The IIS recieves, validates and ingests the immunization event data, performing patient identification (and if necessary deduplication) and stores the data in association with the individual's record.

StepNameDescriptionInitiatorReceiverRequestResponse
1 Immunization Administration Event Submission - eventSubmission (Details: FHIR Restful Interactions code eventSubmission)

The Immunization Event Submitter generates a valid HL7 v2 VXU message and submits it to the IIS.

 Immunization Event Submitters Immunization Program Immunization Event Information
Process: Patient Identification Query

The process of identifying individual(s) of interest in the Immunization program system.

Pre-conditions:

The Authorized User must have enough patient demographics to assure a reasonable chance of matching the patient. The Authorized User and Immunization Program must support a common method of patient identification.

Post-conditions:

The Authorized User is able to persist the Patient resouce ID(s) returned so that a cohort of individuals can be created.

StepNameDescriptionInitiatorReceiverRequestResponse
2 Patient Identification Query - Patient Identification Query (Details: FHIR Restful Interactions code Patient Identification Query)

Patient demographics are exchanged between the Authorized User and the Immunization Program to positively identify cognate individual(s) of interest in both systems.

 Authorized Users Immunization Program Demographics for Patient Identification Return Identified Patients
Process: Cohort Create or Update

The Authorized User creates or updates a cohort of individuals of interest that will be the focus of a bulk data query.

Pre-conditions:

The Authorized User knows the Immunization Program's FHIR Patient IDs for the individuals in the cohort.

Post-conditions:

The Immunization Program maintains a cohort list for the Authorized User.

StepNameDescriptionInitiatorReceiverRequestResponse
3 Cohort Create or Update - Cohort Create or Update (Details: FHIR Restful Interactions code Cohort Create or Update)

Using the identified Patient resources, the Authorized User creates and maintains a cohort of individuals of interest.

 Authorized Users Immunization Program Request to create or modify a cohort
Process: Bulk Data Export

The process of retrieving relevant data on a population of individuals as per the Bulk Data Access FHIR Implementation Guide.

Pre-conditions:

The Immunization Program knows the cohort of individuals of interest to the Authorized User.

Post-conditions:

The Authorized User validates and consumers the bulk data returned by the Immunization Program and makes it available to end users or system activities.

StepNameDescriptionInitiatorReceiverRequestResponse
4 Bulk Data Export - Bulk Data Export (Details: FHIR Restful Interactions code Bulk Data Export)

Appropriate FHIR resources are requested, gathered and retrieved.

 Authorized Users Immunization Program Bulk Query Request Provide Data in Bulk

Instances

NameTypeContentDescription
Immunization Event Information Binary

The Immunization Event Submitter shares discrete data about an administered vaccine with the IIS (typically in the form of an HL7 v2 VXU message).

Demographics for Patient Identification Resource

The Authorized User provides demographics on one or more individuals to be identified by the Immunization Program. A wide variety of methods, some FHIR-based, are possible to fulfill this step.

Return Identified Patients Patient

Based on patient demographics provided, the Immunization Program returns one or more corresponding Patient resources.

Request to create or modify a cohort Resource

The Authorized User requests the creation of a new cohort of individuals or updates to an existing cohort. A wide variety of methods, some FHIR-based, are possible to fulfill this step.

Bulk Query Request Resource

The Authorized User request bulk data via an Operation defined by the Bulk Data Access FHIR Implementation Guide.

Provide Data in Bulk Bundle

The Immunization Program returns relevant data for consumption by the Authorized User. The exact data payload may vary with the use case and Authorized User.