0.1.0 - ci-build
CAREWareFHIRDataDictionary - Local Development build (v0.1.0) built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) Build Tools. See the Directory of published versions
This page documents requirements common to all CAREWare FHIR actors used in this guide. The conformance verbs — SHALL, SHOULD, and MAY — used throughout this guide are defined in the FHIR Conformance Rules.
CAREWare is designed to support data from different electronic health record (EHR) implementations. EHR systems may represent equivalent clinical and administrative information using different FHIR resources, elements, extensions, and terminology.
To accommodate these differences, CAREWare uses configurable mappings to identify and extract data from FHIR resources. As a result, conformance to the CAREWare profiles defined by this Implementation Guide is not required for a FHIR implementation to exchange data successfully with CAREWare. However, EHR implementations are encouraged to align their FHIR representations as closely as practical with the CAREWare profiles provided in this guide.
This guide distinguishes between FHIR conformance, CAREWare compatibility, and CAREWare profile conformance.
FHIR resources exchanged with CAREWare SHALL be valid FHIR R4 (4.0.1) resources.
Implementations SHALL follow the FHIR R4 requirements applicable to the resources and RESTful interactions used by the implementation.
Where an implementation claims conformance to another FHIR profile, such as a US Core profile, the resource SHALL also satisfy the requirements of that profile.
FHIR conformance alone does not guarantee that a resource contains all data required for a particular CAREWare workflow.
A FHIR implementation is considered compatible with CAREWare when the data required for a configured CAREWare workflow can be retrieved from the EHR and successfully identified and processed by the CAREWare FHIR interface.
CAREWare compatibility does not require conformance to the CAREWare profiles defined by this guide.
CAREWare uses configurable mappings to identify data within FHIR resources. These mappings allow CAREWare to accommodate differences in how EHR systems represent equivalent information.
Depending on the EHR implementation, equivalent information may:
An implementation MAY therefore use a FHIR representation that differs from the CAREWare profiles when an appropriate CAREWare mapping is configured to identify and process the required information.
The ability to map a resource does not imply that all data required by CAREWare is present. The source EHR remains responsible for making the necessary data available through its FHIR interface for the applicable CAREWare workflow.
The profiles published in this Implementation Guide describe FHIR representations that CAREWare considers complete for their associated use cases.
CAREWare profiles are intended to provide:
CAREWare does not require incoming FHIR resources to declare conformance to these profiles, nor does CAREWare validate incoming resources against these profiles as part of the FHIR import process.
Instead, CAREWare uses configurable mappings to identify and extract the required data from FHIR resources. An EHR MAY therefore represent equivalent information differently from the CAREWare profiles when the required data can be identified and processed by the configured CAREWare mapping.
EHR implementations SHOULD align their FHIR representations with the CAREWare profiles where practical. Doing so provides a standardized representation of the data expected by CAREWare and can reduce the need for implementation-specific mappings.
Elements marked Must Support (MS) in CAREWare profiles identify elements that CAREWare considers important for the associated use case.
Must Support is used within the CAREWare profiles to communicate implementation expectations to EHR developers. It does not require an incoming resource to conform to a CAREWare profile in order to be processed by CAREWare.
CAREWare MAY process equivalent information represented in other FHIR elements or resources when the configured CAREWare mapping can identify and extract the required data.
Must Support does not change an element's cardinality. An element with a minimum cardinality of 0 may be absent from an individual resource even when marked Must Support.
CAREWare profiles may define terminology bindings for elements where a standardized representation is necessary or recommended.
An implementation claiming conformance to a CAREWare profile SHALL follow terminology bindings according to the binding strength defined by the profile.
Where CAREWare supports alternative representations through configurable mappings, terminology used by the source EHR MAY differ from the terminology recommended by the CAREWare profile.
In these cases, the CAREWare mapping is responsible for translating or interpreting the source representation as necessary for the applicable CAREWare data element.
Terminology requirements that are necessary for a specific CAREWare workflow are documented by the applicable profile, mapping, or implementation guidance.
Implementers SHOULD validate FHIR resources against the applicable CAREWare profiles during development and testing when using the CAREWare-recommended representation.
Validation can help identify differences between an implementation and the data representation recommended by CAREWare.
Validation SHOULD include, as applicable:
Successful validation against a CAREWare profile indicates that the resource conforms to the structural and terminology expectations defined by that profile. It does not guarantee that the resource contains all data required for every CAREWare workflow or reporting requirement.
Failure to validate against a CAREWare profile does not necessarily prevent the resource from being used by CAREWare. CAREWare MAY process alternative FHIR representations when the required data can be identified and extracted through a configured CAREWare mapping.
The following summarizes the distinction between the conformance concepts used by this guide:
| Concept | Requirement | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| FHIR R4 Conformance | Required | Ensures exchanged resources and interactions follow the FHIR R4 specification. |
| CAREWare Compatibility | Required for successful CAREWare use | Ensures CAREWare can retrieve, identify, map, and process the data required for the configured workflow. |
| CAREWare Profile Conformance | Optional | Provides a standardized and complete CAREWare-recommended representation that reduces implementation-specific mapping. |
An implementation does not need to conform to a CAREWare profile to be compatible with CAREWare. However, implementations that use the CAREWare profiles provide a more standardized representation of the data expected by CAREWare and may require less implementation-specific mapping.