The formal description of a single piece of information that can be gathered and reported.

Often called a clinical template.

An absolute URI that is used to identify this data element when it is referenced in a specification, model, design or an instance. This SHALL be a URL, SHOULD be globally unique, and SHOULD be an address at which this data element is (or will be) published. The URL SHOULD include the major version of the data element. For more information see Technical and Business Versions.

Allows the data element to be referenced by a single globally unique identifier.

Can be a urn:uuid: or a urn:oid:, but real http: addresses are preferred. Multiple instances may share the same url if they have a distinct version.

A formal identifier that is used to identify this data element when it is represented in other formats, or referenced in a specification, model, design or an instance.

Allows externally provided and/or usable business identifiers to be easily associated with the module.

Typically, this is used for identifiers that can go in an HL7 V3 II (instance identifier) data type, e.g., to identify this data element outside of FHIR, where it is not possible to use the logical URI.

The identifier that is used to identify this version of the data element when it is referenced in a specification, model, design or instance. This is an arbitrary value managed by the data element author and is not expected to be globally unique. For example, it might be a timestamp (e.g. yyyymmdd) if a managed version is not available. There is also no expectation that versions can be placed in a lexicographical sequence.

There may be different data element instances that have the same identifier but different versions. The version can be appended to the url in a reference to allow a refrence to a particular business version of the data element with the format [url]|[version].

The status of this data element. Enables tracking the life-cycle of the content.

Allows filtering of data elements that are appropriate for use vs. not.
This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not use a retired data element without due consideration.

A boolean value to indicate that this data element is authored for testing purposes (or education/evaluation/marketing), and is not intended to be used for genuine usage.

Enables experimental content to be developed following the same lifecycle that would be used for a production-level data element.

Allows filtering of data element that are appropriate for use vs. not. This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not use an experimental data element in production.

The date (and optionally time) when the data element was published. The date must change if and when the business version changes and it must change if the status code changes. In addition, it should change when the substantive content of the data element changes.

Note that this is not the same as the resource last-modified-date, since the resource may be a secondary representation of the data element. Additional specific dates may be added as extensions or be found by consulting Provenances associated with past versions of the resource.

The name of the individual or organization that published the data element.

Helps establish the "authority/credibility" of the data element. May also allow for contact.

Usually an organization, but may be an individual. The publisher (or steward) of the data element is the organization or individual primarily responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the data element. This is not necessarily the same individual or organization that developed and initially authored the content. The publisher is the primary point of contact for questions or issues with the data element. This item SHOULD be populated unless the information is available from context.

A natural language name identifying the data element. This name should be usable as an identifier for the module by machine processing applications such as code generation.

Support human navigation and code generation.

The name is not expected to be globally unique. The name should be a simple alpha-numeric type name to ensure that it is computable friendly.

A short, descriptive, user-friendly title for the data element.

This name does not need to be machine-processing friendly and may contain punctuation, white-space, etc. This may be similar to the question used to prompt someone for a data element value, but the purpose is communicating about the data element, not asking the question. (Refer to the 'question' element for the latter.).

Contact details to assist a user in finding and communicating with the publisher.

May be a web site, an email address, a telephone number, etc.

The content was developed with a focus and intent of supporting the contexts that are listed. These terms may be used to assist with indexing and searching for appropriate data element instances.

Assist in searching for appropriate content.

When multiple useContexts are specified, there is no expectation whether all or any of the contexts apply.

A legal or geographic region in which the data element is intended to be used.

It may be possible for the data element to be used in jurisdictions other than those for which it was originally designed or intended.

A copyright statement relating to the data element and/or its contents. Copyright statements are generally legal restrictions on the use and publishing of the data element.

Consumers must be able to determine any legal restrictions on the use of the data element and/or its content.

null The copyright statement does not apply to values for the data element, only to its definition.

Identifies how precise the data element is in its definition.

Allows determining the degree of comparability of data element instances. Less granular data elements result in data that is less comparable (or at least requires more work to compare).

Identifies a specification (other than a terminology) that the elements which make up the DataElement have some correspondence with.

An internal id that is used to identify this mapping set when specific mappings are made on a per-element basis.

The specification is described once, with general comments, and then specific mappings are made that reference this declaration.

An absolute URI that identifies the specification that this mapping is expressed to.

A formal identity for the specification being mapped to helps with identifying maps consistently.

A name for the specification that is being mapped to.

Comments about this mapping, including version notes, issues, scope limitations, and other important notes for usage.

Defines the structure, type, allowed values and other constraining characteristics of the data element.

For simple data types there will only be one repetition. For complex data types, multiple repetitions will be present defining a nested structure using the "path" element.