Observation REST Endpoints

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Description

Observation

This topic describes information for the Observation resource.

Overview

The Observation resource provides measurements or simple assertions about a patient that are useful for establishing baselines or trends, monitoring a patient's progress, and establishing diagnoses. Most observations are simple name and value pair assertions, but some observations, such as blood pressure, group other observations together logically. Examples of common observations are laboratory results (blood sugar, hemoglobin), vital signs (temperature, blood pressure), personal characteristics (height, weight), and social history (tobacco and alcohol use, employment status). Pathology reports, radiology reports, and other textual reports are represented by the DiagnosticReport resource.

See the following examples of common observations:

• Laboratory results (blood sugar, hemoglobin)
• Imaging (CMS quality measure around CT radiation dose and ensuring that the dosage is As Low As Reasonably Achievable [ALARA])
• Vital signs (temperature, blood pressure)
• Personal characteristics (height, weight)
• Social history (tobacco and alcohol use, employment status)
• Survey (PRAPARE, AUDIT-C)

Pathology reports, radiology reports, and other textual reports are represented by the DiagnosticReport resource.

This resource supports the following HL7 FHIR US Core Implementation Guide STU 6.1.0 profiles:

• US Core Observation Clinical Result Profile
  • US Core Laboratory Result Observation Profile
• US Core Observation Occupation Profile
• US Core Observation Pregnancy Intent Profile
• US Core Observation Pregnancy Status Profile
• US Core Observation Screening Assessment Profile
• US Core Observation Sexual Orientation Profile
• US Core Simple Observation Profile
• US Core Smoking Status Observation Profile
• US Core Vital Signs Profile
  • US Core Pediatric Head Occipital Frontal Circumference Percentile Profile
  • US Core Pediatric BMI for Age Observation Profile
  • US Core Pediatric Weight for Height Observation Profile
  • US Core Blood Pressure Profile
  • US Core BMI Profile
  • US Core Body Height Profile
  • US Core Body Temperature Profile
  • US Core Body Weight Profile
  • US Core Head Circumference Profile
  • US Core Heart Rate Profile
  • US Core Pulse Oximetry Profile
  • US Core Respiratory Rate Profile

Fields

• ID

• Identifier

• Status

• Category (laboratory, social history, vital-signs, imaging)

• Code (Observation name or text)

• Subject (Patient)

• Encounter

• Effective date/time (collection date/time for laboratory)

• Extensions (for more information, see the Extensions section of this topic)

• Issued (date/time observation made available, entered, verified)

• Performer

• Observation value or result

• For Observations with valueQuantity

• Quantity comparator (<, <=, >, >=)

• Quantity units

• For Observations with valueCodeableConcept

• Codeable concept

• Data absent reason

• Interpretation (abnormal flagging)

• Note (comments)

• Specimen

• Reference range

• low

• high

• type

• text

• Member Observations (for limited use cases)

• Component (for example, systolic and diastolic for blood pressure)

• derivedFrom

Terminology Bindings

• Observation.category

  • Details: Observation Category Codes

    System: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/observation-category

  • Details: Observation US Core Category Codes

    System: http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/CodeSystem/us-core-category

• Observation.code

  Description: The codes identifying names of simple observations.

  • Details: LOINC

    System: http://loinc.org

  • Details: SNOMED CT

    System: http://snomed.info/sct

  • Details: For more information, see Code Set 72 Clinical Event Codes under the List of Code Sets section in Proprietary Codes and Systems.

    System: https://fhir.cerner.com/{EHR source ID}/codeSet/72

• Observation.performer.extension

  Description: The codes identifying the function of the performer.

  • Details: Performer function codes

    System: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v3-ParticipationType

  • Details: Provider Roles

    System: https://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem-v2-0443.html

• Observation.dataAbsentReason

  Description: The codes for reasons that data is absent.

  Details: v4 data absentreason

  System: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/data-absent-reason

• Observation.valueCodeableConcept

  Description: The codes for the value of the observation.

  Details: SNOMED CT

  System: http://snomed.info/sct

• Observation.interpretation

  Description: The codes identifying interpretations of observations.

  • Details: v3 Interpretation Codes

    System: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v3-ObservationInterpretation

  • Details: For more information, see Code Set 52 Interpretation Result under the List of Code Sets section in Proprietary Codes and Systems.

    System: https://fhir.cerner.com/{EHR source ID}/codeSet/52

• Observation.component.code

  Description: The codes identifying names of simple observations.

  • Details: LOINC

    System: http://loinc.org

  • Details: SNOMED CT

    System: http://snomed.info/sct

  • Details: For more information, see Code Set 72 Clinical Event Codes under the List of Code Sets section in Proprietary Codes and Systems.

    System: https://fhir.cerner.com/{EHR source ID}/codeSet/72

• Observation.component.interpretation

  Description: The codes identifying interpretations of observations.

  • Details: v3 Interpretation Codes

    System: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v3-ObservationInterpretation

  • Details: For more information, see Code Set 52 Interpretation Result under the List of Code Sets section in Proprietary Codes and Systems.

    System: https://fhir.cerner.com/{EHR source ID}/codeSet/52

• Observation.component.dataAbsentReason

  Description: The codes for reasons that data is absent.

  Details: v4 data absentreason

  System: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/data-absent-reason

Extensions

• convertedMeasurement: This extension returns a converted measurement of a different measurement system than the original quantity.

• performerFunction

• valueAttachment:
  • The URL for this extension is defined as: https://hl7.org/fhir/5.0/StructureDefinition/extension-Observation.valueAttachment

  • This extension is defined and referenced from the newer version of FHIR. See Extensions for converting between versions and R5 Snapshot of Observation.value for more information.

Observation

The operations from the Observation category.

Create an observation

Method: post

Path: /Observation

Get a list of observations

Method: get

Path: /Observation

Get an observation by ID

Method: get

Path: /Observation/{ID}

Update an observation

Method: put

Path: /Observation/{ID}