1. FHIR R4 APIs with Bulk Data AccessFHIR R4 APIs with Bulk Data Access
  2. Resource Information
  3. Group Export

Group Export

The following topic describes the Group Export operation.

To interact with the REST endpoints in the Group Export resource, see Bulk Export.

Overview

The Group Export operation is used to obtain FHIR resources for all members of a specified group of patients.

An export process uses the FHIR Asynchronous Request Pattern to kick off the export job for a group of patients. Once the export job is kicked off, the status of the job may be checked using the URL returned in the Content-Location header from the kick off response. Once the job is complete, the status request returns a list of file URLs which may be called to download the content of the file. After the appropriate ndjson files are downloaded, the delete request should be called to clean up the no longer needed files.

The Group Export operation exports resources required for United States Core Data for Interoperability V1 (USCDI). For a full list of resources, see the US Core Profiles. When the _type parameter is used it returns only the FHIR resources specified. The _type parameter should be used to filter the resources required for a specific use case. Limiting the number of requested resources in the _type parameter is recommended as it can decrease response times.

Note:

The examples provided here are non-normative and replaying them in the public sandbox is not guaranteed to yield the results shown on the site.

Recommendations

  • Use the _type parameter whenever possible to improve response time and minimize storage requirements. _typeFilter may also be used to further refine the results to be returned.
  • Use the _since parameter to limit the export to only the relevant date range.
  • Clients should follow an Exponential Backoff approach when polling for status as outlined in the FHIR Bulk Data Access IG.
  • Files should be retrieved promptly as the exported content will expire after 30 days.
  • Once the files have been retrieved, use the delete request to clean up the data from your request.
  • Healthcare organizations may create groups containing up to 20,000 patients. However, the recommended group size for optimal performance is 10,000 patients or less.

Testing in sandbox

In order to call bulk data endpoints in sandbox, you need to kick off a group export using one of the group IDs listed below and then perform the subsequent requests.

  • Group with 3 patients: 11ec-d16a-c763b73e-98e8-a31715e6a2bf
  • Group with 10 patients: 11ec-d16a-b40370f8-9d31-577f11a339c5

Example

GET https://fhir-ehr.cerner.com/r4/ec2458f2-1e24-41c8-b71b-0e701af7583d/Group/11ec-d16a-c763b73e-98e8-a31715e6a2bf/$export?_type=Patient