See Questionnaire for introduction and use of the resources and its elements.

Creating and Maintaining Questionnaire

Questionnaire are created and updated through Questionnaire Create and Questionnaire Update, respectively.

Later finding appropriate Questionnaire resources depends on the quality and granularity with which the Questionnaire elements are populated when created/updated. Consequently, effort should be made to ensure these elements are populated.

Filtering applied on finding appropriate Questionnaire could involve the following elements of Questionnaire:

useContext
ehealth-intendedAudience
ehealth-recommendation
status
juristiction

Possibly, the following elements (and others) could be used as well:

title
description
version
publisher
identifier

Preparing a Questionnaire for Infrastructure Rule Use

The description here applies for Questionnaire resources where processing of corresponding QuestionnaireResponse involves extraction of answer(s) to certain questions in the Questionnaire.

In the eHealth Infrastructure, such processing is performed through rules captured in Library resources. In order to make the rules robust and allow for change of question order and additional questions and answer options, the Questionnaire shall utilize defined questions in the form of DefinedQuestion resources. See DefinedQuestion for further details.

When a question in Questionnaire.item is eligible for extraction in a rule, a DefinedQuestion shall be either found or created and subsequently referenced in Questionnaire.item.definition.

The Questionnaire.item.definition shall be a business versioned reference on the form url|(business) version.

An example:

Questionnaire.item.definition Example

A Questionnaire containing a question suitable for calculating a Medical Research Council (MRC) score is to processed by a MRC score rule. Therefore the particular question must be identifiable in order to extract the answer value from a QuestionnaireResponse in a robust way.

In the following it is given that the MRC score question has been defined (see #Managing-DefinedQuestion) as a DefinedQuestion with:

url set to http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/DefinedQuestion/d3db2ad6-b45e-4d21-81db-bcd0ce5d15a3
version set to, say, 1

Preparing for robust extraction, the Questionnaire is defined with:

Questionnaire.item.definition set to http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/DefinedQuestion/d3db2ad6-b45e-4d21-81db-bcd0ce5d15a3|1

As noted in DefinedQuestion, despite any reference through Questionnaire.item.definition and the values the DefinedQuestion may have, it is the answer list and other values of the Questionnaire.item that take precedence.

Preparing a Questionnaire with Embedded, Simple Calculations

A Questionnaire defined with the eHealth profile ehealth-questionnaire-advanced (see https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/StructureDefinition-ehealth-questionnaire-advanced.html) can contain zero, one or more expressions performing a calculation based on answers to questions in the Questionnaire. The expression can make use of zero, one or more variables which identify the particular question/answers more concisely.

A Questionnaire defined with eHealth profile ehealth-questionnaire (see https://docs.ehealth.sundhed.dk/latest-released/ig/StructureDefinition-ehealth-questionnaire.html) cannot contain expressions nor variables.

Defining a Variable

A variable intended for use in an expression (see below) is defined using the extension variable. An example of a variable is shown below as an excerpt of a Questionnaire (in profile ehealth-questionnaire-advanced) in JSON:

 {
  "url": "http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/variable",
  "valueExpression": {
    "name": "Count",
    "language": "text/fhirpath",
    "expression": "QuestionnaireResponse.repeat(item).where(linkId='1.2.208.176.1.5.1,7a481674-9016-46bb-8dd8-2ee49f5bbd53,Sundhedsdatastyrelsen').answer.valueInteger"
  }
}

The variable here is defined at Questionnaire root level referencing a particular question through its Questionnaire.item.linkId. On evaluation in a QuestionnaireResponse, the variable will hold the integer value of the answer (presumably, the referenced Questionnaire.item has integer answer type).

A variable is supported for a question with answer type choice, integer and decimal provided that:

the question is not a calculated expression
a question of type choice is single-choice only
all answer options for question of type choice have an ordinalValue (see ordinalValue)

An example of a variable evaluating to an ordinal value is shown below as an excerpt of a Questionnaire (in profile ehealth-questionnaire-advanced) in JSON:

 {
  "url": "http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/variable",
  "valueExpression": {
    "name": "BreathingDifficulty",
    "language": "text/fhirpath",
    "expression": "iif(QuestionnaireResponse.repeat(item).where(linkId='1.2.208.176.1.5.1,6e6bb131-debd-4675-803b-7d783a75acc6,Sundhedsdatastyrelsen').answer.valueString = 'Severe', 2,
                   iif(QuestionnaireResponse.repeat(item).where(linkId='1.2.208.176.1.5.1,6e6bb131-debd-4675-803b-7d783a75acc6,Sundhedsdatastyrelsen').answer.valueString = 'Normal', 1, {}))"
  }
}

The expression above relies on the definer to ensure consistency between the actual answer values (in Questionnaire.item.answerOption.value[x]) and ordinal values possibly assigned in Questionnaire.item.answerOption.ordinalValue.

Defining a Calculation Expression

An expression is defined in a separate Questionnaire.item (or recursively, Questionnaire.item.item) which shall have:

Questionnaire.item.readOnly set to true
Questionnaire.item.type set to decimal

The expression itself is defined in the extension sdc-questionnaire-calculatedExpression (see calculatedExpression) which is an Expression FHIR element type containing:

language - the expression language. The supported language is a subset of FHIRPath described below. The expression language is specified as "text/fhirpath".
expression - the expression

An example calculation expression is shown below as an excerpt of a Questionnaire (in profile ehealth-questionnaire-advanced) in JSON:

  "extension": [
    {
      "url": "http://hl7.org/fhir/uv/sdc/StructureDefinition/sdc-questionnaire-calculatedExpression",
      "valueExpression": {
        "language": "text/fhirpath",
        "expression": "%Animal * %Count"
      }
    },
    "linkId": "1.2.208.176.1.5.1,25d40dde-f91c-4f11-9477-c6cca71d4178,Sundhedsdatastyrelsen",
    "text": "Total",
    "type": "decimal",
    "required": false,
    "readOnly": true
}

The following runtime behavior is not performed when maintaining the Questionnaire but provides background. On evaluation in a QuestionnaireResponse, the QuestionnaireResponse.item corresponding to the Questionnaire.item above shall contain the calculated value in its QuestionnaireResponse.item.answer.valueDecimal. Provided that values are available in the variables Count and Animal (in the evaluation context of the QuestionnaireResponse), the calculated result can be determined.

In case the expression is defined using one or more Questionnaire.item that are not guaranteed to be present in a well-formed QuestionnaireResponse, it should be defined as not required.

A Questionnaire.item is not guaranteed to be present when either:

it is not required
it depends on other answer(s) (with Questionnaire.item.enableWhen)
it is placed in a group nesting structure which has enableWhen itself

Expression Language

The supported expression language is the following subset of FHIRPath:

Arithmetic: multiplication, division, addition & subtraction only
Parentheses ‘(' and ')'
Constants
The equals operation (=) for primitive types
The iif function

Releasing a Questionnaire

Once a Questionnaire has been finalized it is eligible for use in PlanDefinition/ActivityDefinition telemedicine packages. Finalizing is performed by setting the Questionnaire status to value active through a Questionnaire Update.

The Questionnaire cannot be changed once having status set to active, except for retiring it by changing status to retired.

Retiring a Questionnaire

Retire a Questionnaire by setting the Questionnaire status to value retired through a Questionnaire Update.

Retiring a Questionnaire does not impact current or past use in resources referencing it. It signals that further use in new PlanDefinition/ActivityDefinition telemedicine packages should not happen.

Managing Defined Questions/Answers

See DefinedQuestion for introduction and use of the resource and its elements.

A DefinedQuestion serves multiple purposes:

Allows for establishing a versioned set of reusable questions, possibly with answer lists, that can be copied when defining Questionnaire resources.
Enables robust identification of a question in a Questionnaire. By adding the DefinedQuestion elements url and version with a pipe as separator to a particular question through Questionnaire.item.definition as described above, a rule can process a QuestionnaireResponse to the Questionnaire and reliably identify the answer to that question. The QuestionnaireResponse already uses the linkId from the Questionnaire.item.linkId to identify the particular question, but by traversing this link and doing lookup on any Questionnaire.item.definition, a rule can work irrespective of linkId values.

Example DefinedQuestion for MRC question (question text in Danish)

{
    "resourceType": "StructureDefinition",
    "id": "80557",
    "meta": {
        "versionId": "1",
        "lastUpdated": "2020-12-16T09:25:25.068+00:00",
        "profile": [
            "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/fhir/StructureDefinition/ehealth-definedquestion"
        ]
    },
    "url": "http://ehealth.sundhed.dk/DefinedQuestion/d3db2ad6-b45e-4d21-81db-bcd0ce5d15a3",
    "version": "1",
    "name": "Hvilket af nedenstående udsagn beskriver din situation bedst? \n\nAngiv dit svar:",
    "title": "Hvilket af nedenstående udsagn beskriver din situation bedst? \n\nAngiv dit svar:",
    "status": "active",
    "publisher": "IT Telecare Nord",
    "purpose": "Genbrugeligt spørgsmål til spørgeskema",
    "kind": "logical",
    "abstract": true,
    "type": "StructureDefinition",
    "differential": {
        "element": [
            {
                "id": "StructureDefinition",
                "path": "StructureDefinition.type",
                "definition": "Hvilket af nedenstående udsagn beskriver din situation bedst? \n\nAngiv dit svar:"
            }
        ]
    }
}

With release 2024.1

Upload QFDD/Questionnaire definition to the infrastructure

To be able to share questionnaire responses to KIH, a QFDD for the FHIR Questionnaire must be uploaded to the infrastructure. Furthermore the Questionnaire must reference the uploaded QFDD in Questionnaire.identifier by an identifier with the following properties:

Questionnaire.identifier must contain the unique QFDD document id:

Identifier.system set to “urn:oid:<Attribute root in QFDD /ClinicalDocument/id>”
Identifier.value set to “<Attribute extension in QFDD /ClinicalDocument/id>“

OBS:

The QFDD must be uploaded to the infrastructure before document registering of QRD.
The Questionnaire.identifier can contain multiple identifiers but only the identifier for QFDD is allowed to have an Identifier.system starting with prefix: “urn:oid:”

If using KAM questionnaire editor to create questionnaires, the QFDD reference is set be the following field.

Upload QFDD/Questionnaire definition via KAM

It is possible to upload QFDD via KAM Questionnaire editor by navigating to “Administration af spørgeskemadefinitionener/QFDD'er“.

OBS: The QFDD must be officially published before uploading to the infrastructure, as questionnaire responses should only be shared for published QFDD’s.

Upload QFDD/Questionnaire definition via endpoint

Besides uploading through KAM it is possible to upload directly via POST call to endpoint: <insert link>.

The QFDD is uploaded as a DocumentReference to Document-transformation service.

The requirements for the DocumentReference:

DocumentReference.status must be current.

DocumentReference.type must be Coding for QFDD type: system = "http://loinc.org" and value = "74468-0").

DocumentReference.description the title. If not assigned, the title from the QFDD document is used.

DocumentReference.content.attachment.data must contain the QFDD xml content.

Maintaining Questionnaire Terminology (Spørgeskemakodebank)

When creating Questionnaires for the purpose of Document Sharing, it is required that various elements (groups, questions, answers etc.) are configured with coded values and ids.

The coded values are maintained in the Questionnaire Terminology Service as codes on CodeSystems and the ids must refer to NamingSystems registered on the Questionnaire Terminology Service.

These resource can be maintained by users with the Questionnaire Editor role, which contains permissions for creating/update resources on the Questionnaire Terminology Service.

The Questionnaire Terminology Service is based on the generic Terminology service, and can therefore be interacted with in the same way. Likewise, it is also registered as a standalone FHIR server on the Trifolia application, and can be interacted with through the web application.

Managing Questionnaires