Interactions with the Terminology Service

Extracting Translations from ValueSet and CodeSystem

How to determine, say, Danish translations used in ValueSet? The ValueSet as a resource is likely not to contain a proper, displayable value in Danish as the ValueSet can be defined as include of other ValueSet and/or include of entire or partial CodeSystem, and as the display values in the ValueSet are for technical help primarily. Translations, if available, reside in the CodeSystem.

To get translations for at ValueSet, use $expand as follows:

1. Call $expand on the ValueSet

   1. GET <base-url>/fhir/ValueSet/$expand?url=<ValueSet url>&property=designation

2. Determine best translation:

   1. Choose designation with “da” (for Danish) if available, otherwise

   2. Choose display (as best alternative - this will be in whatever language the concept is defined with)

      1. In the example below, this is the case for code assessment

CodeSystems and designations

For supported operations on concept lookups and decomposition, please see the supported operations on CodeSystem at https://www.hl7.org/fhir/R4/codesystem-operations.html . Designations targeted consumers/citizens will eg. contain the following data in the designation:

<designation>
<language value="da"></language>
<use>
<system value="http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/hl7TermMaintInfra"</system>>
<code value="consumer"></code>
</use>
<value value="Højde"></value>
</designation>

Determining the proper code, system and unit for Quantity

Given an observation code and corresponding system from the ValueSet "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/vs/observation-codes" (see https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/ValueSet-ehealth-observation-codes.html), how does one then determine how to specify an observed quantity or reference range? The following describes how to obtain values to set in Quantity.code, .system and .unit.

To get values forQuantity.code and Quantity.system use the ConceptMap "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/ConceptMap/conceptmap-obs-code-to-ucum" (See https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/ConceptMap-conceptmap-obs-code-to-ucum.html) as follows:

1. Call $translate on the given code and system:

   1. GET <base-url>/fhir/ConceptMap/$translate?system=<system>&code=<code>

2. On match found, the values to use in Quantity.codeandQuantity.systemare the matching concept’s code and system, respectively, where the source ConceptMap is "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/ConceptMap/conceptmap-obs-code-to-ucum" (see example response below):

To get the corresponding and printable value for Quantity.unit, use the ConceptMap "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/ConceptMap/conceptmap-ucum-to-printsymbol" (see https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/ConceptMap-conceptmap-ucum-to-printsymbol.html) as follows:

1. Call $translate on the given system and code determined in the response above:

   1. GET <base-url>/fhir/ConceptMap/$translate?target=http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/vs/ehealth-ucum-printsymbol-supplement&code=<code>&system=<system>

2. On match found, extract the matching concept (see example response below).

3. Call $lookupon the matching (CodeSystem) system and code:

   1. GET <base-url>/fhir/CodeSystem/$lookup?system=http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/cs/ehealth-ucum-printsymbol-supplement&code=<code>

4. On match found, the value to use in Quantity.unitis the matching concept’s designation.valuewhere the designation.language=da(see example response below). If there is no such designation, the printable value in Quantity.unit shall be left empty.

Determining whether to provide measurement as integer or decimal

Given an observation codeand corresponding system from the ValueSet "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/vs/observation-codes" (see https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/ValueSet-ehealth-observation-codes.html), how does one determine whether an observed quantity or reference range shall be stated as an integer or decimal? While a particular device might produce a decimal with a given precision for a measure, it is up to the client/solution to convert to the form expected by the infrastructure. Whether integer or decimal, the value is set inQuantity.value.

To determine whether to use integer or decimal, use the ConceptMap "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/ConceptMap/conceptmap-obs-code-to-value-type" (see https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/ConceptMap-conceptmap-obs-code-to-value-type.html) as follows:

1. Call $translate on the given code and system:

   1. GET <base-url>/fhir/ConceptMap/$translate?system=<system>&code=<code>&target=http://hl7.org/fhir/ValueSet/data-types

2. On match found, indication of whether to use integer or decimal are the matching concept’s code and system, respectively, where the source ConceptMap is "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/ConceptMap/conceptmap-obs-code-to-value-type" (see example response below).

3. The codes integer and decimal in system http://hl7.org/fhir/data-types signify that the observed value or reference range shall be given as integer and decimal, respectively.