Glossary

527 terms

Every v3 term in one alphabet: the domain, specification and guide glossaries in a single list, each term carrying every definition written for it, with see-also references resolved to the term they point at. Filter by domain to see the terms a given area actually uses.

Account: A Billing Account is an accumulator of financial and administrative information for the main purpose of supporting claims and reimbursement. Secondarily, the billing account may contribute significant information to cost accounting and financial decision support systems. A billing account is simply that entity that captures the elements reflecting the cost and price of services provided and supplies consumed for a healthcare activity. The focus for which an account accumulates information will vary. (For example: In a realm where billing is based on periodically collecting financial transactions for a patient, the accumulator might be the patient.) A billing account might also include links to insurance and benefit information, and relevant responsible parties.Accounting and Billing
Acuity: Acuity is a metadata string which denotes the chronicity of the setting for order set employment. Options include • Acute • Chronic • Emergency OrderSet.precondition.Criterion.codeStructured Documents
Adjudication: A process by which an adjudicator identifies edit errors and/or determines payment intent based on insurance policy rules for submitted invoices.Clinical Reports
Adjudication Response: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Adjudication Response Time: The elapsed time between the electronic submission of the claim for adjudication and the receipt of the adjudication results.Clinical Reports
Adjudication Results: A response by the Adjudicator to the Provider identifying edit errors and/or adjudication results for invoices (by Product Service Line Item) that have been paid in full, partially paid (adjusted) or not paid and reasons for adjustment and non-payment.Clinical Reports
Adjudicator: The organization that interprets insurance policy rules through an adjudication process and makes a determination on how much money should be paid for a particular invoice .An Adjudicator typically acts on behalf of an Insurance Carrier.Clinical Reports
Agency: A permanent or semi-permanent organization responsible for the provision of emergency medical services within a given jurisdictional areaEmergency Medical Services
Agency EMS Care Certification: Level of care the agency is permitted to provide by the licensing authorityEmergency Medical Services
Alert No Text: The set of information that describes the details about potential problems or warnings associated with an Act. This is used for drug utilization review findings such as drug interactions. This may include among other things - alert code, type of alert, severity and reason alert was issued( including drug and supply information). No text representation is provided.Clinical Reports
Aliquot: A portion of a specimen submitted for analysis. It may be scoped by the original specimen. An aliquot is a type of specimen in which, the player is a material taken as a sample from another pre-existing specimen (scoper). For example the part of a specimen on which a particular analysis is carried out.Laboratory
Allele: Mutually exclusive forms of the same gene, occupying the same locus on homologous chromosomes, and governing the same biochemical and developmental process. In the HL7 model we use the class name IndividualAllele to emphasize that even if it is a non-variant gene, it is expected that the individual sequencing of the patient gene will have DNA variations such as non-coding SNPs or SNPs with unknown significance.Clinical Genomics
Allowed Benefit: A good or service that is a benefit under the patient's instance of insurance.Clinical Reports
Ambulatory Encounter: A comprehensive term for health care provided in a facility or setting that provides diagnostic, therapeutic and health maintenance services for persons not requiring stays that exceed 24 hours (e.g. a practitioner's office, clinic setting, or hospital) on a nonresident and non-emergency basis. The term ambulatory usually implies that the patient has come to the location and is not assigned to a bed. Sometimes referred to as an outpatient encounter.Patient Administration
Analysis Region: The analysis region defines an area in time upon which algorithms performed some analysis. The analysis may be for the derivation of a median beat, and/or interpretation statements, global measurements, etc. If the rhythm waveforms are long enough to require (local) analysis in multiple places, a region will define each.Regulated Studies
Animal: A subtype of Living Subject representing any animal-of-interest to the Personnel Management domain. An instance of an animal is uniquely identifiable and, as a result, able to be certified, licensed, or otherwise credentialed by an appropriate Credentialing Authority for the purpose of involvement in one or more healthcare processes. Examples include a German Shepard trained as a seeing eye dog, or a kitten licensed to a patient for comfort therapy.Personnel Management
annotation: A note following a Domain Message Information Model (DMIM) diagram that explains the DMIM or the modeling behind the DMIM.Doc: glossary
ANSI: American National Standards Institute (www.ansi.org)Emergency Medical Services; American National Standards InstituteDoc: glossary
Antigen: A foreign substance, such as a transplanted organ, that triggers the body to try to destroy it. This response may be the production of antibodies, which try to destroy the antigen (the transplanted organ).Clinical Genomics; A component of a disease-causing agent that stimulates an immune response. More commonly, the disease which a vaccine is supposed to protect against. In the context of immunization, the latter is the meaning of interest.Immunization
application: A software program or set of related programs that provide some useful healthcare capability or functionality.Doc: glossary
Application: The collection of data (structured and unstructured) that a Person submits to an organization in the context of requesting or applying for/being assigned to a Position. (NOTE: An Application does NOT include the Person's Qualifications or various Credentials (which are represented explicitly elsewhere in the model), but is simply a signed or otherwise verified statement by the Person applying for the Position that the data submitted in the context of the application process (including the Person's Qualifications/Credentials) are complete, accurate, etc. An Attestation is normally date/time stamped.)Personnel Management; All submissions that are grouped together for regulatory purposes.Regulated Products
Application or Assignment: The collection of data (structured and unstructured) that a Person submits to an organization in the context of requesting or applying for/being assigned to a Position. (NOTE: An Application does NOT include the Person's Qualifications or various Credentials (which are represented explicitly elsewhere in the model), but is simply a signed or otherwise verified statement by the Person applying for the Position that the data submitted in the context of the application process (including the Person's Qualifications/Credentials) are complete, accurate, etc. An Attestation is normally date/time stamped.)Personnel Management
application role: An abstraction that expresses a portion of the messaging behavior of an information system.Doc: glossary
artifact: Any deliverable resulting from the discovery, analysis, and design activities leading to the creation of message specifications.Doc: glossary
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a common 8-bit character encoding setDoc: glossary
Assessment or evaluation: The assessment or evaluation is a determination of whether vaccine doses administered to a patient are valid based on an accepted immunization schedule.Immunization
Assignment: A collection of data documenting the association between an instance of a Party (normally a Person) and a Position. The minimal data in an Assignment are date/time of Assignment and Person/Organization making the Assignment. An Assignment also usually includes a time period after which the Assignment is invalid and must be redone if the association between the Person and the Position is to continue.Personnel Management
Assignment of Benefits: The formal transfer of the right to certain benefit payments by a plan member to a third-party.Clinical Reports
association: A reference from one class to another class or to itself, or a connection between two objects (instances of classes). For more information refer to the Relationships section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
association composition: See composite aggregationDoc: glossary
association role name: A name for each end of an association. The name is a short verb phrase depicting the role of the class at the opposite end of the association from the perspective of the class adjacent to the role.Doc: glossary
Attachment Healthcare Invoice: Additional supporting material attached to a NeCST message such as a form, report or image.Clinical Reports
Attachment Reference Identifier: A unique number (made up of form number and Network Application ID) that uniquely identifies the Health Document that is attached to the Healthcare Invoice.Clinical Reports
attribute: An abstraction of a particular aspect of a class. Attributes become the data values that are passed in HL7 messages. For more information refer to the Attributes section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
attribute type: A classifier for the meaning of an attribute. In HL7 Version 3, attribute type is indicated by a suffix added to the attribute name.Doc: glossary
Author: Author is 'A party that originates an act and therefore has responsibility for the information given in the act and ownership of this Act. Example: the report writer, the person writing the act definition, the guideline author, the placer of an order, the EKG cart (device) creating a report, etc. Every Act should have an Author...' -HL7 RIM Definition When combined with the Care Provision Act, the implication is that the author has current responsibility for Care Provision or responsibility for coordination of Care Provision to the Targets of Care. Two use cases are important: 1) When the author and performer are the same, then the statement of responsibility regards the author as performer. 2) When the author and performer are the same, then the statement of responsibility regards the author as performer. When the author and performer are different, then the statement of responsibility regards the performer. The set of use cases implied is that the responsibility for care is being: 1) Started or continued by the author (mood = event), a)for the author or b)for another performer 2) Requested form another performer (mod = request) Promised by the author (mood = promise) Rejected by the author (mood = event) Discontinued by the author (mood = event), a) for the author or b) for another performerPatient Care
Authorization: A communication process betweenthe Provider and Adjudicator regarding (pre)-approval for payment of a service. Authorization is an Adjudicator's commitment to pay for a service even though an Adjudicator may or may not reserve monies for the pre-approved amount. Typically, Authorizations are processed automatically by the Payor's adjudication engine.Clinical Reports
Autologous: A blood donation where the donor is the intended recipient.Blood Tissue Organ
bag: A form of collection whose members are unordered, and need not be unique.Doc: glossary
Battery: A battery is a set of closely related observations. The components of a battery should have a generally accepted clinical, functional or logical relationship to one another. In event mood a battery contains separate valued observations for each of its subcomponents. In definition mood a battery defines a set of required and optional subcomponents. A request for battery may be represented as a single observation in request mood with a code that refers to the defined set of subcomponents. Examples include blood pressure, complete blood count, chemistry panel.Laboratory
BB: Abreviation for Blood BankBlood Tissue Organ
Benefit Coverage: A description of the benefits provided by an individual's benefit plan.Clinical Reports
Benefit Group: A collection of related healthcare providers and/or organizations and/or type of service, usually based on provider specialty, that negotiate fee schedules/payment contracts with Insurance Carriers, e.g. Pharmacy, Preferred Accommodation, Chiropractors. Benefit Groups are used in Financial Management, Claims and Reimbursement (FICR) to classify Messages, Application Roles and Interactions that are allowed for that group.Clinical Reports
Billable Act: An invoice attachment that provides additional details on the claim.Clinical Reports
Billable Invoice Items: One or more billable services performed or products supplied by a Provider.Clinical Reports
Billable Line Item: A single billable unit for a product, e.g. product cost, tax, etc. or service, e.g. office visit.Clinical Reports
blank: One of the allowed values for conformance requirements. Blank means that conformance for this element is to be negotiated on a site-specific basis.Doc: glossary
Bone Marrow: A spongy tissue inside large bones where the body blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets) are made.Clinical Genomics
Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT): Healthy bone marrow is given to patients whose marrow is damaged.Clinical Genomics
Boolean collective: Boolean collective [BooleanCollective; AND, OR, XOR supported] is a feature of order set specification layer III which identifies named sets of orders (collectives) to be manipulated and controlled at time of order set presentation. This supports menu options which may enforce exclusivity/concurrency of order set item at the time of order session processing. The implicit assumption of order set construction is that all order items by default may be selected by the clinician as independent choices. Hence the usual case is that each order item within an order set is linked by an inclusive OR (any item or no item may be selected). Boolean collectives may override this default at order selection and allows adjacent order items within the order set to be required for selection as a group, or individually. All order set items flagged as AND will be required to be selected as a unit or not at all. All items flagged as XOR will require selection of at most of a single item from the group at time of order selection. When employed by decision enabled (layer IV) systems, this feature supports the identification of a set of order items from the order set which serve a common purpose for clinical decision support. All order items within a collective may be manipulated 'en bloc', supporting alerts, manipulation of pre-selection flags, and other presentation features which enhance the decision support features of order sets.Structured Documents
BTO: Abreviation for Blood, Tissue & OrganBlood Tissue Organ
Business Arrangement Identifier (BAI): Identifier assigned to represent the business arrangement (or contract) between a Payee and Provider.Clinical Reports
Bystander: A person who witnesses an emergency and is able to notify an EMS agency or provide information to an EMS crewEmergency Medical Services
Capability: A quantitative, semi-quantitative, or qualitative assessment of the ability of an instance of a Party in a Role to perform and/or participate in a specific activity or task. An a subtype of Credential, a Capability is assigned to an instance of a Party (the instance with the ability) by another instance of Party (the Person or Organization assessing the capability). A Capability is often a specific (e.g. 'can do this task' (Person), or 'has 5 slots available' (Organization)).Personnel Management
cardinality: Property of a data element (the number of times a data element MAY repeat within an individual occurrence of an object view) or column in the Hierarchical Message Description (the minimum and maximum number of occurrences of the message element).Doc: glossary
Care plan: A Care plan is an ordered assembly of expected or planned Acts, in Definitional mood, including observations, services, appointments, procedures and setting of goals, usually organized in phases or sessions, which have the objective of organizing and managing health care activity. Care plans are often focused upon on or more health care problems, with the expectation of one or more favourable outcomes. Care plans may include orders sets as actionable elements, usually supporting a single session or phase MESH (1968, NLM): N 04.590.233.624 Patient care planning - "Usually a written medical and nursing care program designed for a particular patient."Structured Documents
Care Provider: "Performer" is an HL7 Participation that identifies 'A person who actually and principally carries out the action...may be the patient in self-care...' -HL7 RIM Definition When combined with the Care Provision Act, the post-coordinated concept is "Care Provider."Patient Care
Care Provision: "CareProvision" is an HL7 Act that describes 'the taking on of the responsibility by a performer for care activities of a subject of care. Discussion: The care event can exist without any care actions having taken place. The scope of the care is identified by Act.code. For example: Preferred primary care provision: the primary care physician being the primary performer participation, author being the patient; Referral from general practitioner to specialist (a PCPR in request mood, where the author participant is the GP, and the primary performer participation is the specialist); A case manager to a patient or group of patients; Assigning nurses to patients each shift; Care of herd of animals; Care of contaminated environmental site; Care of a device.Patient Care
Carrier: An organization that etablishes insurance policies, determines eligibility and benefits under those insurance policies, and underwrites payments for products and/or services provided to a beneficiary (person or organization). A Carrier may retain a TPA (Third Party Administrator) insurance carrier to perform some or all invoice validation, adjudication and payment. This may also be known as the insurance company or public insurance carrier.Clinical Reports
CDA: Clinical Document Architecture -- Specification for the structure and semantics of "clinical documents" for the purpose of exchange.-Doc: glossary
Certificate: A subtype of Credential that documents that an instance of a Party (Person or Organization) has satisfied a set of criteria (skills, knowledge, etc.) defined by the Organization or Person issuing the Certificate. A Certificate is often viewed as 'less formal' than a Credential. However, in this model, a Credential is an abstract concept that captures the notion of verifiable documentation various types of skills, etc. claimed to be possessed by a Person or Organization (see Credential)Personnel Management
Certificate of medical necessity: See Certification of Transport NecessityEmergency Medical Services
Certificate of Verification: A collection of data documenting that a specific instance of a Credential has been verified/validated in association with the requirement for that credential for either an Assignment of a Party in a Role to a Position or the requirement for a particular instance of a Credential in order for a Party in a Role to qualify for a specific instance of a Privilege. A Certificate of Verification will minimally include a definitive identification of the verifier, a date/time stamp of verification, and (optionally) a structured or unstructured statement of the verification process, contacts, etc.Personnel Management
Certification Of Transport Necessity: An attestation for billing purposes that transport services are medically indicatedEmergency Medical Services
Character Data: Text in a particular coding (e.g., ASCII), as distinguished from binary data.Doc: glossary
Chief Complaint: The primary reason a patient requires attention; typically the only complaint treatedEmergency Medical Services
choice: A message construct that includes alternative portions of the message. For a choice due to specialization, the sender picks one of the alternatives and sends it along with a flag.Doc: glossary
choice due to specialization: A choice that arises when a Hierarchical Message Description includes (a) an object view which is associated with a class that is a superclass of two or more object views, or (b) an object view which is a superclass of one or more object views and MAY itself be instantiated. Under this circumstance different message instances MAY contain different object views. The choice structure is used to accommodate the alternatives.Doc: glossary
class: An abstraction of a thing or concept in a particular application domain. For more information refer to the Classes section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Class I Antigens: There are two classes of MHC antigens, Class I and Class II. Class I antigens alert killer T-cells (T-8 or CD-8 protein) to the presence of body cells that have been invaded by bacteria or viruses, or changed by cancer or disease.Clinical Genomics
Class II Antigens: Class II antigens, located on B-cells and other immune cells, can capture and break down antigens, making them more visible to the helper T-cells (T-4 or CD-4 protein).Clinical Genomics
classifier attribute: An attribute used in generalization hierarchies to indicate which of the specializations is the focus of the class . For more information refer to the Attributes section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Client/patient: The person receiving the immunizations or having recommendations made.Immunization
Clinical decision support: The ability to use data to discover/justify the proper activities planned for a patient.Patient Care
Clinical Phenotype: Phenotype is properties that are observed. In the case of clinical phenotype it is the clinical condition such as disease, sensitivity to a drug etc that are observed in an individual.Clinical Genomics
Clinical Product Billable Act: The set of information to describe the provision of healthcare goods/products for a patient's care that is billed in an invoice. This may include among other things - date of service, goods/product specification (including UPC code, serial number, manufacturer, packaging, warranty) provider, location from and delivery to location.Clinical Reports
Clinical Service Billable Act: The set of information to describe the patient care or other activity performed by a provider that is billed in an invoice. This may include among other things - date of service, healthcare provider, location and diagnosis. It may also include information about the maintenance of a healthcare product (wheelchair).Clinical Reports
Clinical Statement: An expression of a discrete item of clinical, clinically-related or public health information that is recorded because of its relevance to the care of patients (persons, animals and other entities). Clinical or public health information can be expressed with different levels of granularity and therefore the extent and detail conveyed in a single statement may vary. To be regarded as a Clinical Statement, a concept must be associated with a patient or other entity in a manner which makes clear: • Its temporal context • Its relationship to the entity or entities • In the case of an observation, its mood and presence, absence or value • In the case of a procedure, its mood and status This clarity may be achieved by • Explicit representation; or • Implicit application of defaults ONLY where explicitly modeled rules state the appropriate defaults.Clinical Statement
clone: A class from the Reference Information Model (RIM) that has been used in a specialized context and whose name differs from the RIM class from which it was replicated. This makes it possible to represent specialized uses of more general classes to support the needs of messaging.Doc: glossary
CMET: See Common Message Element Type.Doc: glossary
CMET Message Information Model: A form of Refined Message Information Model (RMIM) constructed to represent the totality of concepts embodied in the individual RMIMs needed to support the definition of HL7's Common Message Element Types.Doc: glossary
CMIM: See CMET Message Information Model.Doc: glossary
CNE: See extensibility qualifierDoc: glossary
Co-insurance: A set percentage of any claim cost payable by plan members after any deductible has been paidClinical Reports
Co-ordination of Benefits: Refers to the co-ordination of payment of an invoice or invoice line item that may be payable by more than oneAdjudictor.Clinical Reports
Co-pay: The portion of a claim that is apportioned to the patient, often as a percentage of the total value of the claim.Clinical Reports
coded attribute: An attribute in the Reference Information Model (RIM) with a base data type of CD, CE, CS, or CV.Doc: glossary
Coded, No Extensions: See extensibility qualifierDoc: glossary
Coded, With Extensions: See extensibility qualifierDoc: glossary
coding strength: An extensibility qualifier that specifies whether or not a code set can be expanded to meet local implementation needs.Doc: glossary
coding system: A scheme for representing concepts using (usually) short concept identifiers to denote the concepts that are members of the system; defines a set of unique concept codes. Examples of coding systems are ICD-9, LOINC and SNOMED.Doc: glossary
Collaborating: 'To work jointly with others'-Webster This use assumes the care providers are collaborating around the care of a specific subject.Patient Care
collection: An aggregation of similar objects. The forms of collection used by HL7 are set , bag, and list. Objects which MAY be found in collections include data types and message element types.Doc: glossary
common message element type (CMET): A message type in a Hierarchical Message Description (HMD) that MAY be included by reference in other HMD's. For more information refer to the Common Message Element Types section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Component rules: The collection of rules relating to all schedule doses in a schedule series.Immunization
composite aggregation: A type of association between objects, indicating a whole-part relationship.Doc: glossary
composite data type: A data type assigned to a message element type that contains one or more components, each of which is represented by an assigned data type.Doc: glossary
composite message element type: A message element type that contains subordinate heterogeneous message types.Doc: glossary
Compound: Generally an extemporaneous mixture that has been prepared by the pharmacist based on a prescription from a prescriber.Clinical Reports
concept identifier: A unique identification assigned to a concept by the HL7 organization.Doc: glossary
conformance claim: A specification written by HL7 to precisely define the behavior of an application with respect to its HL7 interfaces, and which MAY be designated functional or technical. A functional conformance claim is simply a statement that an application conforms to a particular application role. A technical conformance claim (also referred to as a Technical Statements of Performance Criteria) defines the behavior of an application in some other sense than the messages it sends or receives. This MAY include the Implementation Technology Specifications that it supports, the use of specific optional protocols or character sets, or many other behaviors.Doc: glossary
conformance claim set: A list of the identifiers of specific HL7 conformance claims, used by a sponsor to describe the conformance of its application.Doc: glossary
conformance requirement: A column in the Hierarchical Message Description (HMD) that designates whether the system SHALL communicate an attribute's value if a value is available. Allowed values are required (must be included), not required (may be left out) or not permitted (may never be included.) Items listed as not required in the HL7 specification SHALL be declared by a vendor as either required or not permitted when a conformance claim is asserted for that message type.Doc: glossary
conformance verb: In HL7 Version 3 Specifications, the correct verb form for indicating a requirement is "SHALL." The correct verb form for indicating a recommendation is "SHOULD." The correct verb form for an option is "MAY." Universally accepted standardization terminology does not recognize "must". Use "SHALL" to indicate a mandatory aspect or an aspect on which there is no option. The negatives are SHALL NOT, SHOULD NOT, MAY NOT. The Publishing Facilitator's Guide requires the Conformance Verbs to be capitalized when they are used to indicate conformance criteria, to differentiate from common usage of the words. The source for this usage is ANSI.Doc: glossary
connection: In an information model, a specified relationship between two classes .Doc: glossary
constraint: Narrowing down of the possible values for an attribute; a suggestion of legal values for an attribute (by indicating the data type that applies, by restriction of the data type, or by definition of the domain of an attribute as a subset of the domain of its data type). MAY also include providing restrictions on data types. A constraint imposed on an association MAY limit the cardinality of the association or alter the navigability of the association (direction in which the association can be navigated). A Refined Message Information Model (RMIM) class MAY be constrained by choosing a subset of its Reference Information Model (RIM) properties (i.e., classes and attributes) or by cloning, in which the class’ name is changed. For more information refer to the Constraints section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Consultand: Individual (s) seeking genetic counseling/tetsing.Clinical Genomics
contact CMET: A CMET variant that provides sufficient information to allow the object identified to be contacted. This is likely to have the content of identified and confirmable plus telephone number.Common Message Element Types
control event wrapper: A wrapper that contains domain specific administrative information related to the "controlled event" which is being communicated as a messaging interaction. The control event wrapper is used only in messages that convey status, or in commands for logical operations being coordinated between applications (e.g., the coordination of query specification/query response interactions).Doc: glossary
coupling: 1. An interaction between systems or between properties of a system.Doc: glossary
Coverage Extension: A form of Authorization where the Provider requests payment approval for extension of a Person's benefit coverage. Typically, Coverage Extensions require manual or human intervention and decision by the Adjudicator. Synonymous with Prior Approval.Clinical Reports
CPR: Cardio-pulmonary resuscitationEmergency Medical Services
Credential: A license issued by a regulatory authority permitting a person or agency to provide a service, or a certification issued by a professional organization attesting to that person or organization's capability to provide a serviceEmergency Medical Services
Credential (Definition and Instantiation): An abstract concept (i.e. there are no physical instances of Credential per se) that represents the various collections of data associated with a verifiable claim by a Person or Organization as to one or more skills, abilities, education, experience, etc. A Credential collects (at minimum) the date/time of issuance and an associated expiration date after which the credential must be renewed to remain valid. The important differentiator between a Credential (or, more correctly, one of its concrete subtypes) and a Qualification is that the former (Credential) can always be verified in terms of the Credential being issued by/associated with a 'credentialing organization' responsible for issuing an instance of a particular credential to an instance of a Party, whereas the latter (Qualification) is simply a statement by the Party of a particular skill, ability, etc. (NOTE: The notion of 'verifiable' that differentiates a Credential from a Qualification is similar to the difference between a Responsibility and a Privilege in that both a Credential and a Privilege involve a formal relationship between at least two instances of Party, whereas a Qualification and a Responsibility do not possess this level of 'contract' formalism.)Personnel Management
Crew: The normal set of EMS professionals dispatched with a unitEmergency Medical Services
Criterion: A rule which defines the manner in which a particular Qualification (including a Credential) or collection of Qualifications are associated with a given Position. An instance of a Criterion may be either a Time-based Criterion (e.g. <xxx> for at least 3 years) or a Non-time-based Criterion (e.g. certified as either an <x> or a <y>).Personnel Management
CWE: See extensibility qualifierDoc: glossary
DAM: Domain analysis model: An information model constructed to represent the concepts in a problem domain.Emergency Medical Services
data type: The structural format of the data carried in an attribute. It MAY constrain the set of values an attribute may assume. For more information refer to the Data Types section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
DCI: Data Collection Instrument. A specification of a structured set of fields for which values are to be collected in the course of a clinical trial.Regulated Studies
Deductible: The dollar amount for which the plan beneficiary must pay before any remaining eligible expenses are reimbursed under the plan. This is usually calculated on an annual basis.Clinical Reports
default value: In HL7 messages, the value for an attribute that is to be used by message receivers if no value is given.Doc: glossary
Deferred Adjudication: Adjudication of a claim that does not occur in real time i.e. the request for payment is responded to with a simple "acknowledgment of receipt" message. The final adjudication and transmission of adjudication results will occur at a later time as determined by the adjudicator's system.Clinical Reports
Demographic Information: Relates to the patient's name, address, date of birth, etc.Clinical Reports
Description: A structured or non-structured collection of (usually) text that collectively defines an instance of a Position. Examples include 'Job Descriptions' on file for the various Jobs/Job Titles within an Organization.Personnel Management
Determinant Peptide: A conserved region of a protein responsible for the certain function of the protein.Clinical Genomics
Diagnosis: Identification of disease or condition by a practitioner by means of a Persons symptoms, diagnostic tests, etc.Clinical Reports
Diagnosis Code: A coding scheme (e.g., ICD-10CA/CCI) used to indicate diagnosis.Clinical Reports
DICOM: Digital Imaging and Communication in MedicineDoc: glossary
DICOM, SR: DICOM Structured ReportingDoc: glossary
DIN: The Drug Identification Number assigned to a specific medication by Health Canada.Clinical Reports
Dispatch: The process of identifying an appropriate unit for the type of notification received and instructing that unit to respondEmergency Medical Services
Disposition: Domain message information model: A constrained information model constructed to represent the concepts in a problem domain in a form in which every feature is assigned to a corresponding feature in the HL7 Reference Information Model. Due to its implication of message-specificity, the use of this term may be discontinued.Emergency Medical Services
distal class: From the perspective of a class in an information model, it is the class at the opposite end of an association between the two.Doc: glossary
DMIM: See Domain Message Information Model.Doc: glossary
Document: Regulatory processes require the submission of documents from the Applicant to the Regulatory Authority. These documents are varied in focus and are often defined by the field of study (i.e., GLP or GCP guidelines) or by the regulatory application requirements of the region or Regulatory Authority (e.g., Integrated Summary of Safety, Pharmacokinetics Written Summary). The RPS message specification provides for the defining of documents in the message.Regulated Products
Document Root: The element in an XML document that contains all other elements; the first element in a document.Doc: glossary
domain: 1. A particular area of interest. For example, the domain for HL7 is healthcare.Doc: glossary
domain expert: An individual who is knowledgeable about the concepts in a particular problem area within the healthcare arena and/or is experienced with using or providing the functionality of that area.Doc: glossary
Domain Message Information Model: A form of Refined Message Information Model (RMIM) constructed to represent the totality of concepts embodied in the individual RMIMs needed to support the communication requirements of a particular HL7 domain. For more information refer to the Information Model section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
domain name: The name assigned to a vocabulary domain.Doc: glossary
domain specification: The specification of a vocabulary domain.Doc: glossary
Donor: An individual from whom an organ or tissue is removed for transplantation.Clinical Genomics
Dose rules: Dose rules are the dose specific rules that validate a given immunization or control the recommendations for the next dose.Immunization
Down's syndrome: This syndrome is associated with a chromosomal condition where the individual has 47 instead of 46 chromosomes. This syndrome is associated with mental retardation.Clinical Genomics
Drug Interactions: An interaction, usually adverse, between two or more medications being taken by the individual.Clinical Reports
Drug Utilization Review: A review of the medication regimen of an individual, either prospective (concurrent) or retrospective (past).Clinical Reports
Duplicate Therapy: The provision of the same or a similar medication for an individual for the same purpose.Clinical Reports
e-Claim: An invoice for health related good(s) and/or service(s) transmitted for payment in an electronic format.Clinical Reports
Education: A subtype of Credential that documents a particular Person's accomplishments, awards, skills, time of involvement, etc. in the context of a recognized educational institution (e.g. high school, college, graduate school, non-degree granting training programs, vocational training, etc.)Personnel Management
Electronic Health Record (EHR): An electronic representation of an individual's health record, either in a single data repository or in separate linked repositories.Clinical Reports
Eligibility (for benefits coverage): A Person meets the criteria for benefits coverage. Benefits coverage is determined by the Insurance Carrier and may be delegated to an Adjudicator. Eligibility for benefits does not necessarily imply a specific service or good will be covered for payment. Eligibility with one insurance carrier does not imply eligibility with another insurance carrier.Clinical Reports
EMD: Emergency Medical DispatchEmergency Medical Services
Emergency Encounter: A patient encounter that takes place at a dedicated healthcare service delivery location where the patient receives immediate evaluation and treatment, provided until the patient can be discharged or responsibility for the patient's care is transferred elsewhere (for example, the patient could be admitted as an inpatient or transferred to another facility.)Patient Administration
EMS: Emergency medical services: a branch of emergency services dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency.Emergency Medical Services
EMS Incident: An event requiring emergency medical services, including inter-facility transport needs as well as disasters, accidents, and other mishapsEmergency Medical Services
EMS Incident Location: The location where the emergency occurs, and to which the EMS unit is dispatchedEmergency Medical Services
EMS Professional: A person trained and licensed to provide EMS servicesEmergency Medical Services
Encounter: An interaction between a patient and healthcare participant(s) for the purpose of providing patient service(s) or assessing the health status of a patient. For example, outpatient visit to multiple departments, home health support (including physical therapy), inpatient hospital stay, emergency room visit, field visit (e.g., traffic accident), office visit, occupational therapy, telephone call.Patient Administration
Encounter, Ambulatory: See term instead.Patient Administration
Encounter, Emergency: See term instead.Patient Administration
Encounter, Field: See term instead.Patient Administration
Encounter, Home Health: See term instead.Patient Administration
Encounter, Inpatient: See term instead.Patient Administration
Encounter, Short Stay: See term instead.Patient Administration
Encounter, Virtual: See term instead.Patient Administration
Enrolment: The process of registering with an insurer to obtain benefits coverage.Clinical Reports
entry point: The point at which a Common Message Element Type (CMET) is inserted into a Refined Message Information Model (RMIM).Doc: glossary
Episode of Care: "Encounter" is an HL7 Class that describes 'An interaction between a patient and healthcare participant(s) for the purpose of providing patient service(s) or assessing the health status of a patient.' - HL7 RIM Definition Episode of Care is a collection of one or more encounters that address the same target of care and that include a relationship to the same Episode of Illness or ConditionPatient Care
event: 1. A stimulus that causes a noteworthy change in the state of an object, or a signal that invokes the behavior of an object. See also .Doc: glossary
Event Mood: 'Event' is 'A service that actually happens, may be an ongoing service or a documentation of a past service.' - HL7 RIM Definition When combined with the Act Care Provision and a Performer, the Event Mood of the Act distinguishes whether the performer actually has (or had) Responsibility for Care.Patient Care
Experience: A subtype of Credential that documents a particular instance of Party's (most often a Person's) accomplishments, skills, time of involvement, etc. in a particular context, usually a Position or Role. QUESTION: Is this where Internship, Residency, etc. go?Personnel Management
Explanation of Benefits (EOB): Identifies paid amount, adjudication results and informational items for n Invoice Grouping. The Provider may forward EOB details from a Primary Payor unaltered toa Secondary Adjudicator for co-ordination of benefits.Clinical Reports
extensibility qualifier: A vocabulary domain qualifier used in a domain specification, which indicates whether or not the existing vocabulary domain can be extended with additional values. There are two possible values: CNE (coded, no extension) and CWE (coded with extension). For more information refer to the Vocabulary Domain Qualifiers section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Extensible Markup Language: A meta-language that defines a syntax used to define other domain -specific, semantic, structured markup languages. Based on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), it consists of a set of rules for defining semantic tags used to mark up the content of documents. Abbreviated as XML.Doc: glossary
FDA: Food and Drug AdministrationRegulated Reporting
Field Encounter: A patient encounter that takes place both outside a dedicated service delivery location and outside a patient's residence. Example locations might include an accident site and at a supermarket.Patient Administration
Filler Order: An order created by a fulfiller. This may be in response to a Placer order which it seeks to fulfill or it may be initiated independently. These may also be in response to a paper order received by the Filler. These are always in the Promise (PRMS) Mood.Laboratory
Findings: 'The results of an investigation'-Webster 'an observation; a condition discovered'--DorlandPatient Care
Form: Structured document with content, transmission, display and storage requirements identified in a standard.Clinical Reports
Formulary: The list of medications that are a benefit for an individual or a defined group.Clinical Reports
Full Text Order: Full text order will be a complete textual description of the order, observation or goal including purpose, instructions, frequency, priority, repetitions, etc. All order set items with a full text description but a "null" order set specification layer will be considered non-actionable by the order session, will be descriptive only and will function as comments to the user when an order set is displayed during order processing.Structured Documents
function point: Any function, user transaction, or other interaction or event in the sponsor’s application which, when it occurs, does or may correspond to an HL7 trigger event. Used to describe the conformance of an information system with the HL7 standard.Doc: glossary
Gene Expression: Gene Expression is the cellular process that starts with the production of messenger RNA (mRNA) by chromosomal DNA in a process called transcription.Clinical Genomics
generalization: An association between two classes, referred to as superclass and subclass, in which the subclass is derived from the superclass. The subclass inherits all properties from the superclass, including attributes, relationships, and states, but also adds new ones to extend the capabilities of the parent class. Essentially, a specialization from the point-of-view of the subclass. For more information refer to the Relationships section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
generalization hierarchy: All superclasses and subclasses with a common root superclass.Doc: glossary
GeneticLocus: A genetic locus is a position in a genome (or linkage map) of a particular given sequence. The given sequence could be that of a gene, allele, marker, etc. An example of a locus is 6p21.3 in cytogenetic nomenclature. This locus is for chromosome 6, short arm (p), region 2, band 1, subband 3. This is a specification for a position on a chromosome, not for what is actually found at that position. Note that the HL7 specs recognize several nomenclatures for specifying a locus.Clinical Genomics
Genotype: The genetic constitution of an organism or cell, as distinct from its expressed features or phenotype. In particular it is the allelic makeup of an organism with regard to an observed trait. In the HL7 models, the use of the Genotype term (and the root class - GeneticLocus) encompasses all genomic aspects related to a specific chromosomal or mitochondrial locus, including DNA sequence variations, gene expression and proteomics.Clinical Genomics
Global Product Identification Number (EAN, UCC, GPIN): A globally unique identifier assigned to a productClinical Reports
Goods: A durable or consumable product provided to a Person including equipment, food and furniture. Splint, wheelchair, prosthetic and custom table are examples of goods.Clinical Reports
Goods Service: A service provided to a Good (for a Person) such as wheelchair repair, hearing aid repair or prosthesis repair.Clinical Reports
graphical expression: A visual representation of a model that uses graphic symbols to represent the components of the model and the relationships that exist between those components.Doc: glossary
grid view: A complete view of the message type definition, which, due to its size, is presented in a scrollable format.Doc: glossary
Group Service: Provision of a service(s) to a group of individuals.Clinical Reports
Haplotype: The particular combination of alleles in a defined region of some chromosome.Clinical Genomics
HDF: HL7 Development Framework, which documents the process for HL7 standards developmentEmergency Medical Services
Health Document: A form, report or image that substantiates the authorization, adjudication and subsequent payment of a Healthcare Invoice. A Health Document can be submitted manually or electronically. When submitted electronically, it can be submitted with a Healthcare Invoice or separately from the Healthcare Invoice.Clinical Reports
Health Goods Provider: A party that provides medical and support goods to a Person.Clinical Reports
Health Record Extracts: Portions of the HL7 Electronic Health Record (EHR) Domain that are copied from the larger EHR for a specific purpose. --based on health record terminology from Australia's HealthConnect projectPatient Care
Health Record Summary: A judgment or assessment based on parts of a health record that produces a shortened version of the parts assessed. -based on a definition from Australia's HealthConnect projectPatient Care
Health Service: A health care service such as diagnosis, treatment or intervention performed for a person.Clinical Reports
Health Service Provider: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Healthcare Claim: An invoice for health related good(s) and/or service(s) transmitted for payment. See also .Clinical Reports
Healthcare Good: A product that is supplied from a healthcare provider and that is/ may be a benefit of an individual's benefit plan e.g. wheelchair, syringes.Clinical Reports
Healthcare Invoice: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Healthcare Provider: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Hierarchical Message Description: A specification of the exact fields of a message and their grouping, sequence, optionality, and cardinality. This specification contains message types for one or more interactions, or that represent one or more common message element types. This is the primary normative structure for HL7 messages.Doc: glossary
HITSP: Health Information Technology Standards Panel (www.hitsp.org)Emergency Medical Services
HL7: Health Level Seven, an ANSI-recognized standards development organization in the healthcare interoperability space (www.hl7.org)Emergency Medical Services
HLA: Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA): Molecule found on cells in the body that characterize each person as unique. These antigens are inherited from your parents. In donor-recipient matching, HLA determines whether someone will accept an organ from a donor.Clinical Genomics
HMD: See Hierarchical Message Description.Doc: glossary
Home Health Encounter: A patient encounter where services are provided or supervised by a practitioner at the patient's residence. Services may include recurring visits for chronic or terminal conditions or visit(s) facilitating recuperation.Patient Administration
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language, a specification of the W3C that provides markup of documents for display in a web browserDoc: glossary
ICSR: Individual Case Safety ReportRegulated Reporting
identified CMET: A CMET variant that is a proper subset of universal and is intended to provide sufficient information to identify the object(s) modeled by the CMET. This variant is only suitable for use within TIGHTLY COUPLED SYSTEMS ONLY. This variant provides ONLY the ID (and code where applicable) and Name. Other variants may not be substituted at runtime.Common Message Element Types
identified-confirmable CMET: A CMET variant that extends the identified variant by adding just sufficient additional information to allow the identity of object modeled to be confirmed by a number of corroborating items of data; for instance a patient's date of birth and current address.Common Message Element Types
identified-informational CMET: A CMET variant that contains the same attributes and associations present in the confirmable CMET (or the identified/confirmable if the confirmable does not exist), however the informational variant of dependant CMETs is used, which relaxes the constraints on dependant CMETs. This allows more flexible use of the CMET.Common Message Element Types
identifier attribute: An attribute used to identify an instance of a class. For more information refer to the Attributes section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
IHE PCC: Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (www.ihe.net) Patient Care Coordination domainEmergency Medical Services
Immunization: The record of the event of receiving an immunization. Sometimes referred to as a shot or a dose of vaccine.Immunization
Immunization history: The collection of immunizations received by the client/patient.Immunization
Immunization schedule: A schedule is the collection of schedule series. In most cases, a schedule is published and supported by health jurisdictions or groups, such as the ACIP in the US.Immunization
Immunization Status: Immunization Status describes a person's progress towards meeting the goals for a particular vaccine.Immunization
implementation technology: A technology selected for use in encoding and sending HL7 messages. For example, XML is being used as an implementation technology for Version 3.Doc: glossary
Implementation Technology Specification: A specification that describes how HL7 messages are sent using a specific implementation technology . It includes, but is not limited to, specifications of the method of encoding the messages, rules for the establishment of connections and transmission timing and procedures for dealing with errors. For more information refer to the Implementation Technology Specifications section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Implied Consent: Consent for an activity that is inferred by a prior activity and not a result of a discussion i.e. supplying a healthcare provider with a benefit card implied the provider should transmit claims for payment where possible.Clinical Reports
inclusion: The specification in the Hierarchical Message Description indicating whether an element of a message type MAY be null in some message instances. Contrast this with conformance.Doc: glossary
IndividualAllele: One of the different forms of a gene is called an Allele. In humans one allele comes from the paternal chromosome and another from the maternal chromosome. Different alleles bring about variation in inherited characteristics. By Individual we mean that it is possible to represent the actual sequence of an individual which might contain SNPs that are not part of the allele definition.Clinical Genomics
Information Invoice: An invoice that is for information purposes only. Used in situations where a non fee for service funding method is used but details on the products/services provided is still required.Clinical Reports
information model: A structured specification, expressed graphically and/or narratively, of the information requirements of a domain. An information model describes the classes of information required and the properties of those classes, including attributes, relationships, and states. Examples in HL7 are the Domain Reference Information Model, Reference Information Model, and Refined Message Information Model. For more information refer to the Information Model section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
informational CMET: A CMET variant that includes approximately the same attributes and associations present in the identified/confirmable CMET, however the entry class id is required, not mandatory. This allows more flexible use of the CMET.Common Message Element Types
inheritance: In a generalization relationship, the subclass inherits all properties from the superclass, including attributes, relationships, and states, unless otherwise specified.Doc: glossary
Inpatient Encounter: A patient encounter where a patient is admitted by a hospital or equivalent facility, assigned to a location where patients generally stay at least overnight and provided with room, board, and continuous nursing service.Patient Administration
instance: A case or an occurrence. For example, an instance of a class is an object.Doc: glossary
Insurance Carrier: See term instead.Clinical Reports
interaction: A single, one-way information flow that supports a communication requirement expressed in a scenario.Doc: glossary
interaction diagram: A graphical representation of communications between application roles. An interaction diagram may also be referred to as a ladder diagram, sequence diagram, or storyboard interaction diagram.Doc: glossary
interaction list: A list of the interactions that appear in an interaction diagram.Doc: glossary
interaction model: A specification of the responsibilities of message senders and receivers.Doc: glossary
interaction narrative: A narrative description of each interaction contained in an interaction list .Doc: glossary
internal data type: An HL7 data type defined to support the definition of other data types, but which may not be assigned as the type for a data field itself.Doc: glossary
interoperability: In this context, interoperability refers to the ability of two or more computer systems to exchange information. • Main Entry: in·ter·op·er·a·bil·i·ty • Function: noun • Date: 1977 • ability of a system (as a weapons system) to use the parts or equipment of another system • Source: Merriam-Webster web site • interoperability • ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged. • Source: IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary: A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries, IEEE, 1990 “Functional” interoperability is the capability to reliably exchange information without error “Semantic" interoperability is the ability to interpret, and, therefore, to make effective use of the information so exchanged. In our context, "effective use" means that the information can be used in any type of computable algorithm (appropriate) to that informationDoc: glossary
Invoice: A request initiated by a Provider, on behalf of a plan member (insured), for payment for services rendered and/or goods provided. Stated another way, an Invoice is a request by a plan member to a plan administrator (Adjudicator) for payment of a benefit covered by the benefit plan. Can be synonymous with Fee for Service Claim, Claim, and Bill. An invoice can be submitted for any payment modalities (e.g., fee for service, sessional, group, contract and/or block services).Clinical Reports
Invoice Element: A single billable item, made up of an identifiable code (e.g. office visit, wheel chair) and pricing for that billable item. For example, it can be used to specify 4 wheel chairs @ $250 per wheel chair. Invoice Elements may be specified in a hierarchy to fully specify the item being invoiced. That is, it includes a grouping variant as well as a detail variant (the detail variant contains the detailed pricing information). For example, a group Invoice Element may contain 2 detail Invoice Elements, one for the good and one for the associated taxes. Therefore, the group Invoice Element would represent the amount for the good and taxes.Clinical Reports
Invoice Element Detail: The information contained in a Healthcare Invoice such as quantity, unit and cost, authorization, service location and comment information. Synonymous with fee-item.Clinical Reports
Invoice Element Group: A grouping of Invoice Element Details. For example, a group represents all of the costing elements that make up a drug cost (e.g. drug cost + markup).Clinical Reports
Invoice Element Grouping: A collection of Invoice Elements that make up a package of items that need to be adjudicated together. For example, a drug dispense, with Invoice Elements (costing elements) for the drug cost, markup and professional fees. An Invoice Grouping has a root Invoice Element Group, with multiple Invoice Element Details and Invoice Element Groups.Clinical Reports
Is Personal: Is Personal is a data flag indicating whether the order set is institutional (Boolean false) or owned by an individual (Boolean true)Structured Documents
IS04: The HITSP specification for Emergency Responder - Electronic Health Record InteroperabilityEmergency Medical Services
Isolate: A micro-organism on which observations are made. This may be obtained from a specimen submitted for analysis or it may be submitted in its own right. It may be scoped by the original specimen. An isolate is a type of specimen in which, the player is a culture of a type micro organism that has been isolated from other micro organisms and/or its source matrix. The scoping entity is the original specimen or culture.Laboratory
ITS: See Implementation Technology Specification.Doc: glossary
joint state: A summarization of multiple partial states in a state machine.Doc: glossary
Jurisdiction: The authority to license agencies and professionals to provide EMS services in a geographic areaEmergency Medical Services
ladder diagram: See interaction diagram.Doc: glossary
License: Formal permission granted to an EMS professional in a jurisdiction by an authority to provide EMS servicesEmergency Medical Services; A subtype of Credential that documents that an instance of a Party (Person or Organization) has satisfied a set of criteria (skills, knowledge, etc.) defined by the Organization or Person issuing the License. The difference between a License and a Certificate is found in the amount of legal/regulatory context surrounding the issuing organization, a License typically being issued by known regulatory agencies (e.g. State government), a Certificate being issued by a non-regulatory institution (e.g. school, continuing education center, etc.)Personnel Management
life cycle: See state machine.Doc: glossary
LIFO: Last in-first out. See push-down stack.Doc: glossary
list: A form of collection whose members are ordered, and need not be unique.Doc: glossary
literary expression: A representation of a model in text. The literary expression seeks to balance the need for a rigorous, unambiguous description of the model with the need for a rendition that can be easily read and interpreted by individuals who understand the general concepts underlying object-oriented models, but who may not be schooled in formal model definition languages.Doc: glossary
Living Subject: The abstract super-class (parent class) of Person and AnimalPersonnel Management
LocusMatching: Locus is a position in a chromosome of a particular gene or allele. LocusMatching is the similarity in the locus between the donor and recipient.Clinical Genomics
LOINC: Logical Observations, Identifiers, Names, and CodesDoc: glossary
loosely coupled: Loosely coupled application roles do not assume that common information about the subject classes participating in a message is available to system components outside of the specific message.Doc: glossary
mandatory: If an attribute is designated as mandatory, all message elements which make use of this attribute SHALL contain a non-null value or they SHALL have a default that is not null. This requirement is indicated in the "mandatory" column in the Hierarchical Message Description.Doc: glossary
mandatory association: An association with a multiplicity minimum greater than zero on one end. A fully mandatory association is one with a multiplicity minimum greater than zero on both ends.Doc: glossary
markup: Computer-processable annotations within a document. Markup encodes a description of a document’s storage layout and logical structure. In the context of HL7 Version 3, markup syntax is according to the XML Recommendation.Doc: glossary
Master Files: Common lookup tables used by one or more application systems.Doc: glossary
MAY: The conformance verb MAY is used to indicate a possibility. See the conformance verb definition for more information.Doc: glossary
MDF: See Message Development Framework.Doc: glossary
Median Beat Annotations: Just like annotations on the rhythm data, annotations can be made on the median beat. Fudicial markings related to the measurements specified by the trial protocol can be made globally (on all leads) or locally (on some leads). Episode annotations (such as arrhythmias, ST elevation episodes, etc.) would not be made on the median beat (for obvious reasons). Refer to examples from rhythm waveforms annotations.Regulated Studies
Median Beat Waveforms: Computer algorithms can derive a representative beat from a series of beats having the same morphology (same focus, etc.). Sometimes a trial protocol will specify the usage of a "median beat" for taking measurements. If a median beat is used, and the rhythm data from which it is derived is wanted by the FDA, the median beat is related to the rhythm waveforms via an analysis region. The median is typically composed of as many leads as the rhythm waveforms from which it was derived. The relative time represents time within the representative cycle, not time relative to the beginning of the rhythm waveforms.Regulated Studies
message: A package of information communicated from one application to another. See also and message instance.Doc: glossary
Message Development Framework: The collection of models, methods, and tools that comprise the methodology for specifying HL7 Version 3 messages. This framework is used by the developers of the HL7 standards.Doc: glossary
message element: A unit of structure within a message type.Doc: glossary
message element type: A portion of a message type that describes one of the elements of the message.Doc: glossary
message instance: A message, populated with data values, and formatted for a specific transmission based on a particular message type.Doc: glossary
message payload: Data carried in a message.Doc: glossary
message type: A set of rules for constructing a message given a specific set of instance data. As such, it also serves as a guide for parsing a message to recover the instance data.Doc: glossary
meta-model: A model used to specify other models. For example, the meta-model for a relational database system might specify elements of type ‘Table’, ‘Record’, and ‘Field.’.Doc: glossary
methodology: Methods or rules followed in a particular discipline.Doc: glossary
MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME, RFC 2046)Doc: glossary
minimal CMET: A CMET variant that provides more than identified, but not as much as universal. There are not expected to be many of these.Common Message Element Types
model: A representation of a domain that uses abstraction to express the relevant concepts. In HL7, the model consists of a collection of schema and other documentation.Doc: glossary
Mood: 'Mood' is 'A code distinguishing whether an Act is conceived of as a factual statement or in some other manner as a command, possibility, etc.' - HL7 RIM Definition When combined with the Act Care Provision and a Performer, the Mood of the Act distinguishes whether the performer actually has (or had) Responsibility for Care, whether the performer is requested to take on responsibility, or whether the performer is promising to take on responsibility for care. Mood for other Acts in the DMIM may take on the myriad of moods that are described in the HL7 RIM documentation under values for "moodCode."Patient Care
multiplicity: 1. In the information model, multiplicity is a specification of the minimum and maximum number of objects from each class that can participate in an association. Multiplicity is specified for each end of the association.Doc: glossary
Mutation: Heritable change in the DNA sequence. A mutation - or alteration - in a particular gene-DNA often results in a certain disease.Clinical Genomics
Namespace: A qualifier added to an XML tag to ensure uniqueness among XML elements.Doc: its r2spec
navigability: Direction in which an association can be navigated (either one way or both ways).Doc: glossary
NEMSIS: National Emergency Medical Services Information System (www.nemsis.org)Emergency Medical Services
NEMSIS TAC: NEMSIS Technical Assistance Center, an organization funded and chartered by the US government to support EMS agencies using the NEMSIS datasetEmergency Medical Services
NHTSA: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (www.nhtsa.dot.gov)Emergency Medical Services
Non-Time-based Criterion: Personnel Management
not permitted: One of the allowed values in conformance requirements. Abbreviated as NP, it means that the message element is never sent for that message type.Doc: glossary
Notification: The process of bringing an emergent medical problem to the attention of an EMS dispatcherEmergency Medical Services
null: A value for a data element which indicates the absence of data. A number of “flavors” of null are possible and are enumerated in the domain NullFlavor.Doc: glossary
object: An instance of a class. A part of an information system containing a collection of related data (in the form of attributes) and procedures (methods) for operating on that data. For more information refer to the Classes section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
object identifier: A scheme to provide globally unique identifiers. This object identifier (OID) scheme is an ISO standard (ISO 8824:1990), and has been adopted as a CSA standard (Z243.110). The HL7 OID Registry is available online.Doc: glossary
object identity: The feature that the existence of an object is independent of any values associated with the object.Doc: glossary
object-based: Any method, language, or system that supports object identity, classification, and encapsulation. An object-based system does not support specialization . Ada is an example of an object-based implementation language.Doc: glossary
obsolescent message type: A message type that has been marked for deletion in a future version of HL7.Doc: glossary
obsolete message type: A message type, previously declared obsolescent, that has been removed or replaced in a particular version of HL7.Doc: glossary
Occurrence Order: An single instance of a recurring order. Each instance occurs at a specific point in time.Laboratory
OID: See object identifier.Doc: glossary
optional: See inclusion.Doc: glossary
Order Alerting text: Order alerting text is a text message which is displayed as an informational item with an order set item at the time of the order session. The alerting text may be a static element of the order set or may be dynamically populated at the initiation of the order session by a decision support program.Structured Documents
Order Display Group: Order display group is a textual category linked to each order set item; vendor software employs these tags to organize and display orders with similar actions or intent within an order set for ease of clinical browsing and to aid understanding and order selection. They may express intent, such as "Diagnostic" or "Treatments", or be organizational in nature, such as "Laboratory" or "Radiology".Structured Documents
Order Item Code: Order item code is the coded data attribute of the definitional order ACT which is requested, or is the object of the goal or observation for a particular order item within an order setStructured Documents
Order Medication Code: Medication or treatment is the coded attribute of a medication order which specifies the pharmaceutical or medical treatment to be administered to the patient.Structured Documents
Order Medication Route Code: Medication route is a coded data attribute of a medication order which identifies the route of administration of an ordered pharmaceutical treatment .Structured Documents
Order Preselection Flag: Order pre-selection flag - (answers the question: should this order item be pre-selected at time of order processing: choices = YES, NO or MANDATORY (REQUIRED)) is a data flag that determines whether this order set item will be pre-selected, de-selected or required at the time an order session is begun. Orders considered central to a protocol will be pre-selected, while optional and infrequent orders will be deselected at the time the order session is begun. Mandatory should be used only with caution in selected cases.Structured Documents
Order Priority: Order priority is the coded attribute which specifies the urgency or immediacy of the particular requested ACT.Structured Documents
Order Repetition: Order repetition specifies the number of acts to be performed within the scope of the particular order item.Structured Documents
Order Sanction Decision Logic: Order sanction decision logic is a decision criterion or knowledge construct which may employ patient record data in order to sanction (remove) an order set item in an order set at the time an order session is active.Structured Documents
Order Sequence Number: Order sequence number is an integer indicating the placement of this order set item within the order set.Structured Documents
Order Session: Order session is a Clinical Information System program function which supports a clinician through the process of order selection, order confirmation, order authentication and processing. The order session is not a focus of this standard which is oriented toward the publication of the order set knowledge.Structured Documents
Order set: "An order set is a pre-filled ordering template, or electronic protocol that is derived from evidence based best practice guidelines." (1) In the article proposing this definition, the authors provide a cursory description of their methodology and data structure. "Once a guideline is accepted, the contents of the guidelines are translated into a workflow that can then be adapted into one or more order sets and automated through the computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system." "Each record in the table represents one order and contains all high level information about the order such as, order description, department, type of order, frequency, dose, order entry date, etc. This table also houses essential, frequently used attributes needed in order set analysis such as order set name, ordering health care professional, the patients current clinical service and patient location at the time the order set was placed." The electronic health record interest group of HL-7 has recently published a proposed electronic health record functional description. They state order sets "support delivery of effective healthcare", improve efficiency, facilitate management of chronic conditions, and improve patient safety. They provide the following functional description of order sets: "Order sets allow a care provider to choose common orders for a particular disease state or circumstance according to best practice criteria for assembling the order set without having to generate each order individually. The EHR may recommend order sets in certain conditions or as the result of other clinical information being entered into the EHR. Or the order sets may simply be available for use by the ordering care provider." An order set is not merely a collection of orders. The collection of proposed acts within the order set has been developed and edited to promote consistent and effective organization of health care activity. (1) Kamal J, Rogers P, Saltz J, Mekhjian HS. Information Warehouse as a Tool to Analyze Computerized Physician Order Entry Order Set Utilization: Opportunities for Improvement. In: AMIA 2003 Symposium Proceedings; 2003; Washington, DC; 2003. p. 336-41.Structured Documents
Order Set: See Profile.Laboratory
Order Set Dates: Creation date]is the date the order set was created Date of Last Review is the date of last order set review for content Date Valid Until the order set is valid for use until this date Date last edited is the date the order set was last reviewed or modifiedStructured Documents
Order Set Header: Order set Header Each order set has a single header which identifies the order set, specifies the patient population for whom the order set is useful, links the order set to the guideline problem of focus, identifies the protocol session whose management this supplements, and contains editorial information for authorship and metadata to support proper maintenance.Structured Documents
Order Set Item: Order set item is the recurring element of the order body. It consists of the full RIM compliant definition of an Order, Medication order, Observation or Goal to be employed in the order set. It may also be a pointer to another order set, allowing the nesting of order sets within order sets.Structured Documents
Order Set Key: Order set key uniquely defines an order set and may be employed to nest an order set as an order set item within another order setStructured Documents
Order set milestones: Order set milestones are implementation objectives with associated target and actual completiopn dates that are included with order set metadata summarizing institutional records of development, implementation and use of the order setStructured Documents
Order Set Owner: Owner is an unique identifier for the clinical author responsible for this order set document instance.Structured Documents
Order Set Population: Order set population defines the set of coded restrictions (age, gender and other patient characteristics) which specify the group of patients appropriate for the effective clinical use of this order set. Order set population consists of one or more precondition criteria that provides a computable determination whether an order set should be employed in the care of a specific patient.Structured Documents
Order Set Problem Code: Order set problem code is the terminological concept (semantic class is finding or disorder, eg from SNOMED CT) which identifies the clinical focus of this order set and the associated protocol or care plan. A protocol may be modeled in part as a sequence of order sessions during which appropriate order sets are employed, generally linked by the problem focus of the protocol.Structured Documents
Order Set Session Code: Order set session code is the concept code (semantic class is procedure, eg from SNOMED CT) defining the order session within the larger episode of a protocol, care plan or guideline. Examples include SNOMED CT - 32485007 "Admission to hospital" or SNOMED CT - 37894004 "Evaluation & Management new outpatient".Structured Documents
Order Set Title: Order Set Title is a descriptive name for this order set document instance.Structured Documents
Order Set Version: Version is an alpha numeric string denoting current version designation of the order set document instance.Structured Documents
Organization: A formalized group of persons with a common purpose (e.g. administrative, legal, political, etc.) and infrastructure necessary to achieve said purpose.. An Organization is recognized as an entity from the perspective of one or more authorities and/or other organizations external to the Organization-of-Interest including legal, social, etc. Instances of Organization include: Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Province of British Columbia, California State Board of Medical Examiners, etc.Personnel Management
Outcome: The observation on the subject made following a specific intervention or collection of interventions on the subject or related subjects - paraphrased from the Nursing Terminology Summit.Patient Care
Package: See Profile.Laboratory
partial state: Part of a state machine. A state machine MAY have multiple partial states effective at the same time; the multiple partial states can be summarized to one joint state of the state machine.Doc: glossary
Party: An abstract class that is the parent class for Organization and Person.Personnel Management
Patient: Person, in the role of patient for a particular situation. For example, this person is a patient at the hospital, but this person is not a patient at this time. See also .Clinical Reports
Patient Care Responsibility: Most governments describe the accountability a care provider has for a person under care. Although the specifics of this responsibility vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the concept is general at the international level. In many cases, this accountability is present even without personal contact between the care provider and the patient or delivery of services, e.g. responsibility of a public health clinic for a population of patients; an enrollment of a patient in the patient panel of a physician.Patient Care
Patient Encounter: See term instead.Patient Administration
Patient Pays Portion: The amount of a claim that is the responsibility of the patient.Clinical Reports
Payee: A Person or organization that receives payment for Goods provided and/or Services rendered or receives payment on behalf of one or more Providers. As well, a Payee may be a Person who has directly paid the Provider for the Goods provided and/or Services rendered and is being reimbursed by the Adjudicator. In some cases, a Payee may be the same as the Provider.Clinical Reports
Payer: A person or organization responsible for paying medical billsEmergency Medical Services
Payment: A cheque or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) issued to a Payee.Clinical Reports
Payment Advice: The payment details for adjudicated Invoices and non-Invoice adjustments which correspond to an actual payment either by cheque or electronic funds transfer.Clinical Reports
Payment Intent: Based on the adjudicated results of an invoice, Payment Intent is the details of the items and amounts the Adjudicator intends to pay. This is not a record of payment but rather an intention to pay which may be more or less than what was requested in the invoice.Clinical Reports
Payment Reconciliation: The process of comparing what has been paid versus what was expected to be paid.Clinical Reports
Payment Request: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Payor: A Payor is the organization who is responisble for the payment. This is typically the name on the cheque. Also known as the Plan Sponsor. Note that this may be a different organization than the Carrier (insurance carrier) and Adjudicator.Clinical Reports
Payor Adjustments: Adjustments made by the Payor to the billed amount as a result of items such as deductibles or professional dues. Can also be referred to as adjustments to Payee.Clinical Reports
Person: Individual person, who can assume multiple roles over time. For example, a person may be a patient for a period of time at a hospital or a provider on a different occasion.Clinical Reports; - A subtype of Living Subject representing single human being who, in the context of the Personnel Management domain, must also be uniquely identifiable through one or more legal documents (e.g. Driver's License, Birth Certificate, etc.) Instances of Person include: John Smith, RN, Mary Jones, MD, etc.Personnel Management
Pertinent Information: An HL7 Act Relationship that asserts a 'very unspecific relationship from one item of clinical information to another. It does not judge about the role the pertinent information plays.' - HL7 RIM definitionPatient Care
Pharmacy Dispense Billable Act: The set of information to describe the dispensing of a drug to a patient that is billed in an invoice. This may include among other things - date of service, drug supplied (specification, quantity, days supply), prescription and prescriber, number of refills, alerts and pharmacy.Clinical Reports
Placer Order: An order placed and maintained by a Placer system. Its status can only be changed by the placer. This must be in Request (RQO) moodLaboratory
Polypeptide: A peptide is composed of a chain that may be considered as derived from linking amino acids by forming peptide bonds. Polypeptides are long stretches of such peptide chains. A protein is made up of a polypeptide chain plus other chemical groups.Clinical Genomics
Position: Within the context of an instance of an Organization, a Position is a named collection of various duties, Responsibilities, and/or Privileges. A Position may exist without a Person in a Role being Assigned to that Position, i.e. a Position can be created/defined in terms of the Qualifications (including various forms of Credentials that a Person much have to qualify for an Assignment to that Position). A Position is considered a subtype of Role because of the common domain perspective that a 'base' or 'functional' role (e.g. Staff Physician) is often necessary before the (e.g. person) in a given 'base/functional' role can be assigned to other roles (e.g. Chair of Department of Cardiology, Director of ICU, etc.). The collection of duties, responsibilities, and/or privileges associated with a given Position is, at minimum, contained in a Description associated with the Position. The presence of a Description implies that the Position may exist ('be defined') irrespective of whether an instance of a Party in a Role has been assigned to the position.Personnel Management
Pre-Determination: The submission of a 'mock' Healthcare Invoice to a Payor to determine the extent to which an Adjudicator will reimburse for the goods or services. A Provider may use this to compare alternate treatments to determine least cost alternative for the patient.Clinical Reports
predicate reference: In the Hierarchical Message Description, a message element that is referred to in the predicate defining the conditional presence of another message element.Doc: glossary
Preferred Accommodation Benefits: Benefits covering special healthcare lodging requirements. This includes private or semi-private hospital accommodation.Clinical Reports
Preferred Accommodation Billable Act: The set of information to describe the patient's premium hospital accommodation that is billed in an invoice. This may include among other things - date range of occupation, location, accommodation requested and available, reason for accommodation and requestor.Clinical Reports
Preliminary Report: A preliminary report contains completed results that are valid for a point in time with the information currently available. This report is not expected to be revised but may be replaced with a subsequent preliminary report or a final report.. The order remains active until a final report has been issued that sets the order and its components to 'completed'. For example, a preliminary report for a blood culture reads 'no growth after 24 hours'; the order status remains active. The final report of 'no growth after 7 days' is subsequently issued and the order status is set to 'completed'.Laboratory
Prescription: An order from a recognized prescriber for a health care good or service.Clinical Reports
Primary Payor: The Payor that is responsible for payment of a Healthcare Invoice.Clinical Reports
primitive data type: A data type that is defined as a single entity, and whose full semantic is contained in its definition.Doc: glossary
primitive message element type: A message element type that contains a single datum, with no subordinate components. Examples include String and Number.Doc: glossary
Prior Approval: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Privilege: A subtype of Responsibility that is differentiated from Responsibility by virtue of the fact that it is associated with specific Credentials rather than simply Qualifications. Although Privileges may be associated with a Position (e.g. the Position of Attending Physician may be associated with Admitting Privileges), a Person in a Role may, in addition, apply for other Privileges. Each application involves at least one other Party who must review the Person-in-a-Role's specific Credentials required in order for the Privilege to be granted. Requirements may be defined by the Granting Party and/or by external organizations. NOTE: A Privilege differs from a Responsibility in that the association/assignment of a Privilege to a Person-in-a-Role requires the interaction of at least two instances of Party, i.e. the Person-in-a-Role (who may or may not be in a Position) requesting the Privilege and the Person/Organization-in-a-Role granting the Privilege. In the sense that it requires a 2-Party interaction,' the concept Privilege is therefore similar to Credential.Personnel Management
Proband: First affected family member coming to medlcal attention.Clinical Genomics
Procedure: In the context of a Health Care procedure this is the details identifying the service or procedure that was actually provided to a Person such as the procedure code, duration of procedure, time procedure took place and Provider who performed the procedure.Clinical Reports
Product/Service Code: The code used to identify what service is being billed. Synonymous with fee-code.Clinical Reports
Professional Fee: In health care, the fee charged by the health care provider for the provision of a service. In pharmacy, this often refers to the fee charged for the dispensing of a medication.Clinical Reports
Profile: A group of orderable items requested together as an ordering or billing convenience. These are generally configured on the requesting application and are expanded into order items before being sent to a fulfiller.Laboratory
Promise Mood: 'Promise' is 'An intent to perform a service that has the strength of a commitment, i.e., other parties may rely on the originator of such promise that said originator will see to it that the promised act will be fulfilled. A promise can be either solicited or unsolicited.' - HL7 RIM Definition When combined with the Act Care Provision and a Performer, the Promise Mood of the Act distinguishes whether the performer is promising to take on responsibility for care.Patient Care
property: 1. Any attribute, association, method, or state model defined for a class or object.Doc: glossary
Protocol: A set of medical instructions to be followed under a specified set of circumstancesEmergency Medical Services
Provider: An individual who delivers a health service to a person or animal e.g., doctor, nurse, pharmacist, technician, etc.Clinical Reports
Provider Adjustments: Changes to the billable amount as a result of items such as taxes, mark-ups, surcharges or discounts.Clinical Reports
Public Safety Dispatcher: A person trained and licensed to dispatch EMS unitsEmergency Medical Services
push-down stack: Also known as a “last in-first out” (LIFO) list, a list maintained by a Technical Committee as it analyses the Refined Message Information Model (RMIM) and builds a Hierarchical Message Description, in which the last class added is always the first class removed. (A metaphoric reference to the spring-loaded plate carriers used in institutional dining halls, where the new plates added to the top of the stack push down the earlier plates, so the newest plate is taken off the stack first).Doc: glossary
Qualification (Definition and Instatiation): The supertype/parent of Credential. A statement of a specific capability, competency, and/or capacity which may either be asserted by or required for a Role or Position. An attribute of a Qualification may be whether or not a scoper Party requires the Qualification for an Initial Application to a Role/Position, as opposed to requiring it for Reapplication to the named Role or Position. A Qualification is differentiated from a Credential by virtue of the fact that a Credential carries the requirement of both the assertion and the validation ('vetting') of the capability, competency, and/or capacity, whereas the Qualification is simply the assertion per se.Personnel Management
query: Queries are the primary mechanism for retrieving information from computer systems. Many database management systems use the Structured Query Language (SQL) standard query format.Doc: glossary
RCV: See term instead.Laboratory
Re-Adjudication (of an invoice): Process whereby a Provider can request a re-adjudication of an invoice that has been partially paid by a Payor. A TE660101 message can be used to perform this function or alternatively, the original invoice can be cancelled and a new invoice submitted to the same Payor.Clinical Reports
Real Time Location System: A Real Time Location System (RTLS) captures, processes and stores information about the location of tracking tags associated with resources (patients, providers, equipment) as they move around a healthcare facility.Registries
realm: A vocabulary domain qualifier used in a domain specification, which allows the vocabulary domain of a coded attribute to be specialized according to the geographical, organizational, or political environment where the HL7 standard is being used. For more information refer to the Vocabulary Domain Qualifiers section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Receiver: The application fulfilling the Receiving Application role in an interactionClinical Reports
receiver responsibility: An obligation on an application role that receives an interactionas defined in the interaction model.Doc: glossary
Reciprocal Healthcare Invoice: A request for payment of Service rendered and/or Goods provided by a Provider in one province to a Person who is insured by a different province. Reciprocal invoices are based on agreements between the provinces, except Quebec and only apply to Physician related claims.Clinical Reports
Recommendation: A recommendation is guidance on when the next dose is due and is based on a standard set of rules. This may consider both the history of vaccines already received and client conditions.Immunization
Recurring Order: An order for a series of requests to be performed over time.Laboratory
recursion: An association that leads from a class directly or indirectly back to that class.Doc: glossary
Reference Change Value: The Reference Change Value (formerly known as critical difference) is derived from the analytical and biological variability in the measured parameters. It provides an estimate of the significance of change between serial results and provides an index that will enable interpretation of results by the user or end user systems. Results changes >= to the RCV of 0.99 probability are said to be "highly significant", changes >= RCV at 0.95% probability but <= to the RCV at 0.99 are said to be "significant".Laboratory
Reference Information Model: The HL7 information model from which all other information models (e.g., RMIMs) and messages are derived. For more information refer to the Information Model section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Refined Message Information Model: An information structure that represents the requirements for a set of messages. A constrained subset of the Reference Information Model (RIM) which MAY contain additional classes that are cloned from RIM classes. Contains those classes, attributes, associations, and data types that are needed to support one or more Hierarchical Message Descriptions (HMD). A single message can be shown as a particular pathway through the classes within an RMIM. For more information refer to the Information Model section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
Region Specification: There are 2 basic types of regions: a fully specified region and a partially specified one. The fully specified region is one where each dimension within the Observation Series to be included in the region has a boundary defined. For example, if an episode of ST elevation is observed in leads V4 and V5, a fully specified region would contain 3 boundaries: one for time, one for V4, and one for V5. The boundary in time would be specified with an interval in time (IVL<PQ>). The boundaries on V4 and V5 would be infinite intervals (the entire range of voltages for both leads are to be included in the region for ST elevation). A partially specified region assumes all dimensions in the Observation Series are included in the region except for the boundaries specified. For example, if a global QRS onset is observed, only a boundary for time is required. All the other dimensions (leads) would be included in the partially specified region.Regulated Studies
Relationship: A class used to collect instances of a class as either Source or Target of the intervening Relationship instancePersonnel Management
Replaces Order Set: Replaces order set is a link to the identifier of an earlier order set which is now superseded by the current order set document instance.Structured Documents
Request for Payment: See term instead.Clinical Reports
Request Mood: 'Request' is 'A request or order for a service is an intent directed from a placer (request author) to a fulfiller (service performer).' - HL7 RIM Definition When combined with the Act Care Provision and a Performer, the Request Mood of the Act distinguishes whether the performer is requested to take on responsibility for care.Patient Care
Requester: An organization or person on whose behalf a request message for authorization, information, etc. is submitted.Clinical Reports
required: One of the allowed values in conformance requirements. Abbreviated as R, it means that the message elements SHALL appear every time that particular message type is used for an interaction. If the data is available, the element SHALL carry the data, otherwise a blank MAY be sent.Doc: glossary
Reshaping: Reshaping is the process of creating a specific serialization model from a HL7 static model. The process consists of two parts; The removal of attributes with fixed values and the flattening of associations.Doc: its r2spec
Resource Link: Resource link is an embedded web services URL attached to the order, the order dislay group or the order set header which can direct web software to information services relevant to the clinical situation at the time of order processing.Structured Documents
responsibility: An action required of the receiver of a message.Doc: glossary
Responsibility: A defined task, associated with a Position. A given Responsibiltiy may be Required (Y/N) A responsibility may be required or optional. The optionality of a particular Responsibility as part of the definition of a Position may ultimately end up being Required when a particular Person is Assigned to a Position.Personnel Management
Result: A value obtained from an observation and reported against the appropriate Observation Act code. Results are in Event (EVN) moodLaboratory
Result Corrected: A result that replaces a previously reported 'Complete' result.Laboratory
Result Partial: A partial result refers to a multi-component result when some but not all components have been reported. The order has not yet been fulfilled and is still active. Each atomic result reported may be 'Active' or 'Completed'.Laboratory
Result Preliminary: A result that is expected to be replaced with a revised result at a later stage. This result should be treated with a degree of caution as it is subject to change. For example, a toxicology screen identifies the presence of an unidentified opiate. This preliminary result is not set to completed and will be updated later with the specific drug and set to complete. A preliminary result is not the same as a preliminary report. See preliminary report.Laboratory
Result Revised: A result that replaces a previously reported result that was not 'Complete'. The Revised result may have a 'Complete' status or may remain 'Active'Laboratory
Rhythm Waveform Annotations: Some annotations will be specific to areas in time but will apply to all the leads. For example, the presence of an arrhythmia, or a period of time where the patient was performing some activity that affects the ECG. Pacer spikes and perhaps beat locations are also indicated as points or areas in time. Fudicial markings made by superimposing all the leads would also fall into this category. * Rhythm annotation example * Patient activity example * Pacer spikes example * Beat location example * Beat classification example * Global fudicial markings example Other annotations will be specific to areas in time AND one or more leads. Annotations falling into this category include fudicial markings for beat measurements made on particular leads, lead-specific episodes such as ST elevation, etc. * Fudicial markings example * Isoelectric example * ST elevation exampleRegulated Studies
Rhythm Waveforms: These are the waveforms directly collected from the subject and used for clinical trial research. If measurements were taken from these, annotations should show the fudicial markings for those measurements. The specific set of fudicial markings is specified by the trial protocol. If the waveforms have been enhanced to facilitate the measurement process, control variables should indicate what enhancements were made. For example, filtering, etc.Regulated Studies
RIM: See Reference Information Model.Doc: glossary
RMIM: See Refined Message Information Model.Doc: glossary
RMIM diagram: A diagrammatic representation of a Refined Message Information Model (RMIM). Possible formats include UML and the HL7 RMIM graphic format.Doc: glossary
role: 1. A function or position.Doc: glossary
Role: A named context in which a Party (usually, but not always, a Person) is identified in a context-of-interest. Roles represent specific semantics involved in the relationship between two (and only two) instances of a Party: one instance of a Party plays a Role scoped by another instance of a Party. Note that the naming of the Role may be formal or informal within the organization, but that the identity of the instance of Person (or Organization) playing the Role does not end when the Role itself ends. In addition, a Role specifies a competency, capability, and/or capacity which the Entity assuming the Role scoper piece of the relationship implicitly or explicitly acknowledges as being present/possessed by the Entity assuming the Role player portion of the relationship. In particular, the Personnel Management domain is particularly interested in the various Roles associated with all aspects of healthcare delivery, as well as the various Acts by which a given Role is defined, identified, guaranteed, or acknowledged by the scoper Party. (NOTE: The more formal association of a Person in a Role Assigned to a Position with associated Responsibilities and/or Privileges is explicitly covered elsewhere in the Domain Analysis Model)Personnel Management
role name: See association role name.Doc: glossary
root class: The class on which a message is based. Usually the root class for a family of messages is either the subject class or the class that will be first represented in the set of messages to be built.Doc: glossary
RootInvoiceElement: An Invoice Element at the top level (root) of the hierarchy of billable items that form part of an Invoice. Relationships for insurance, service target (e.g. patient), incident, EOBs (explanation of benefits) submitted for downstream payors (to support Coordination of Benefits) and attachments are made to the RootInvoiceElement. The information thus supplied applies to each individual Invoice Element (billable item) associated to the RootInvoiceElement.Clinical Reports
RTLS: See term instead.Registries
RTLS Tracking Tag: A Real Time Location System (RTLS) Tracking Tag (or more simply Tracking Tag) is a device that is attached to an entity (such as a patient, provider, or medical device) that is used in conjunction with a Real Time Location System to track the movement of that entity .Registries
scenario: A statement of relevant events from the problem domain, defined as a sequence of interactions. The scenario provides one set of interactions that the modeling committee expects will typically occur in the domain. Usually, a sequence diagram is constructed to show a group of interactions for a single scenario. Each scenario is displayed as a subset of the interaction model.Doc: glossary
Schedule dose: A schedule dose represents one of the expected doses in a series.Immunization
Schedule series: A series is the constellation of vaccine doses that meet the criteria to be considered protected against members of a vaccine group. More than one series may meet those goals and some series may be amended based on history. For instance, there are several series that can meet the goals of HIB. The number of doses recommended for one of these series changes, based on current age and history of vaccination.Immunization
schema: 1. A diagrammatic presentation, a structured framework, or a plan.Doc: glossary
schema view: A link to the schema used to validate XML messages that conform to a particular message type.Doc: glossary
scope: 1. A definition of the range or extent of a project undertaken by a Technical Committee.Doc: glossary
SDO: Standards development organizationEmergency Medical Services
Secondary Payor: The Payor that is responsible for payment of a Healthcare Invoice if the Primary Payor does not pay.Clinical Reports
section: In the HL7 Version 3 Guide, a method of grouping related information into domains. These domains include Infrastructure Management, Administrative Management, and Health & Clinical Management.Doc: glossary
Semantic: In the context of a technical specification, semantic refers to the meaning of something as distinct from its exchange representation. Syntax can change without affecting semantics.Doc: glossary
Sender: The application fulfilling the Sending Application role in an interactionClinical Reports
sequence diagram: See interaction diagram .Doc: glossary
Serialization: A frequent requirement is to output a final result tree as an XML document (or in other formats such as HTML). This process is referred to as serialization.Doc: its r2spec
Serialization Model: This is the model comprised of classes with attributes that correspond directly to the XML elements and attributes that appear in instances. A serialisation model is derived from a RIM based model using the rules defined by the Reshaping Annotations. For an Actual Serialisation Model the XML elementa nd attributes take names from the model, whereas the Standard Validation Model, and any Templates, are Serialisation Models where the class and attribute names may not correspond to the XML elements and attributes.Doc: its r2spec
Service: A consultation, diagnosis, treatment or intervention performed for a Person and/or other activity performed for a Person. Includes health, goods and support services.Clinical Reports; A specific service, e.g., a medical procedureEmergency Medical Services
Service Bureau: An agent retained by a Provider to assemble and submit Healthcare Invoices and receive validation and adjudication results.Clinical Reports
Service Level: The level of service provided, particularly with regard to urgencyEmergency Medical Services
Service Relationship: A defined relationship or association between a Provider and Payee or Person and Payee that defines the financial and/or contract terms and conditions.Clinical Reports
Service Type: Category of emergency medical service, e.g., rescue, transport, hazardous materials responseEmergency Medical Services
Sessional Invoice: An invoice for services provided on a sessional basis, e.g., 4 hours in an operating theatre.Clinical Reports
set: A form of collection which contains an unordered list of unique elements of a single type.Doc: glossary
SGML: Standard Generalized Markup Language, ISO 8879:1986(E) as amended and correctedDoc: glossary
SHALL: The conformance verb SHALL is used to indicate a requirement. See the conformance verb definition for more information.Doc: glossary
Short Stay Encounter: A patient encounter where the patient is admitted to a health care facility for a predetermined length of time, usually less than 24 hours.Patient Administration
SHOULD: The conformance verb SHOULD is used to indicate a recommendation. See the conformance verb definition for more information.Doc: glossary
Site: A location from which a unit may be dispatchedEmergency Medical Services
SNOMED: Systematized Nomenclature of MedicineDoc: glossary
SNP: A variation that occurs in human DNA which is common and minute. These variations are usually inherited in families or might be idiosyncratic.Clinical Genomics
SNP-Haplotype: Patterns of SNPs on a block of DNA.Clinical Genomics
SOFA: This acronym is for Statement Of Financial Activity. This is a category of interactions that facilitate the exchange of detailed and summarized financial information between an Invoice Requestor and Adjudication Manager. It includes Payment Advices, summarized counts and amounts for processed invoices as well as details of individual counts and amounts over a specified period of timeClinical Reports
specialization: An association between two classes (designated superclass and subclass), in which the subclass is derived from the superclass. The subclass inherits all properties from the superclass, including attributes, relationships, and states, but also adds new ones to extend the capabilities of the superclass.Doc: glossary
Specific Serialization Model: The specific serialization model for a static model is the model expressed in UML or an XSD schema document by applying the reshaping rules to the rim based expression of the static model.Doc: its r2spec
specification: A detailed description of the required characteristics of a product.Doc: glossary
Specimen: A sample obtained from a subject on which observations are performed. A specimen is a type of partitive role in which, the player is a material taken as a sample from a source scoping entity. For example, a specimen of venous blood taken from a patient for a laboratory investigation.Laboratory
sponsor (of an application): In the context of conformance claims , the vendor, in-house developer, or provider of public domain software for a healthcare information system.Doc: glossary
Standing Order: An instruction for care in force indefinitely for emergency use in the absence of a medical doctorEmergency Medical Services
state: A named condition of a class instance ( object) that can be tested by examination of the instance's attributes and associations. For more information refer to the Dynamic Behavior section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
state attribute: An attribute describing the current state of an object. For more information refer to the Attributes section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
state diagram: A graphical representation of a state transition model showing states as vertices (nodes) and state transitions as directed arcs (arrows) between the nodes.Doc: glossary
state flag: A discrete value of a single enumerated domain of partial states. State flags are included in a state attribute in a message instance that indicates the joint state of an object.Doc: glossary
state machine: A description of the life cycle for instances of a class, defined by a state transition model.Doc: glossary
state transition: A change in the state of an object, as a result of a change in its attributes or associations. For more information refer to the Dynamic Behavior section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
state transition model: A graphical representation of the life cycle of a class. The model depicts all of the relevant states of a class, and the valid transitions from state to state.Doc: glossary
Static Model: This is the definition of a particular HL7 static model, and exists as an XML document that conforms to the MIF specification.Doc: its r2spec
steward committee: The Technical Committee within HL7 which has primary responsibility for specifying properties for a class in the Reference Information Model (RIM). The steward committee must be consulted on any proposed changes to the properties of classes under its stewardship.Doc: glossary
stewardship representative: An individual member of the steward committee, authorized by the committee to speak on behalf of the committee, and to represent the interests of the steward committee.Doc: glossary
storyboard: A narrative of relevant events defined using interaction diagramsor use cases. The storyboard provides one set of interactions that the modeling committee expects will typically occur in the domain.Doc: glossary
storyboard diagram: See interaction diagram.Doc: glossary
Strength of Recommendation: Strength of recommendation flag is a clinical order priority score that may be assigned as a default by the order set author, but which may be altered programmatically at the time of order processing by guideline decision logic.Structured Documents
structural attribute: An attribute whose coded values are needed to fully interpret the class with which it is associated.Doc: glossary
stylesheet: A file that describes how to display an XML document of a given typeDoc: glossary
sub-section: In the HL7 Version 3 Guide, a section within a major section.Doc: glossary
sub-state: An identifiable state of a class that has a more specific definition than, and is entirely encompassed within the scope of, its super-state.Doc: glossary
subclass: A class that is the specialization of another class ( superclass).Doc: glossary
subject area: A convenient aggregation of model classes used to partition large models into manageable subsets.Doc: glossary
subject class: A class that a Technical Committee designates as the central focus of a collection of messages.Doc: glossary
Submission: A compilation of the contents of one or more submission units supporting a specific regulatory purpose or decision. In most cases, the compilation of the submission units is utilized in the assessment of a product's quality, safety and effectiveness.Regulated Products
Submission Unit: A package of files as well as all file references shipped to the agency at one time. The file references are collectively called the submission unit message.Regulated Products
Submission Unit Message: An XML construct containing all file references (not including the files) in a submission unit which describe the properties of the files (attributes and metadata information), the links that cross reference files and the operations to perform on files.Regulated Products
super-state: A state of a class that encompasses two or more independent sub-states.Doc: glossary
superclass: A class that is the generalization of one or more other classes ( subclasses).Doc: glossary
Supporting Documentation: Forms, Reports, Attachments submitted by Third Parties (e.g., Employer) to a Payor that may be applicable to a Healthcare Invoice. Submission not included in scope of NeCST.Clinical Reports
surface form (of a concept): A code value or textual description that represents a concept identified by an HL7 concept identifier. There MAY be many different surface forms associated with a single concept identifier.Doc: glossary
system: 1. An end user application.Doc: glossary
table view: An expression of the Hierarchical Message Description (HMD) common and message type definition condensed in size to fit on a printed page.Doc: glossary
Targets of Care: 'Subject' is an HL7 Participation that identifies the 'The principle target that the service acts on, e.g. the patient in physical examination, a specimen in a lab observation. May also be a patient's family member (teaching) or a device or room (cleaning, disinfecting, housekeeping). Note: not all direct targets are subjects. Consumables and devices used as tools for a service are not subjects. However, a device may be a subject of a maintenance service. '- HL7 RIM definition. 'Indirect Target' is an HL7 Participation differentiated from Direct Target by 'A Target that is not substantially present in the act and which is not directly affected by the act, but which will be a focus of the record or documentation of the act.' HL7 examples include 'record target,' which 'indicates whose medical record holds the documentation of this act. This is especially important when the subject of the service is not the patient himself.' - HL7 RIM definition. When combined with the Care Provision Act, the post-coordinated concepts are 'Targets of Care.'Patient Care
Task Bundle: Within the context of an instance of an Organization, a Position is a named collection of Responsibilities (including Privileges). A Position may exist without a Person in a Role being Assigned to that Position, i.e. a Position can be created/defined in terms of the Qualifications (including various forms of Credentials that a Person much have to qualify for an Assignment to that Position).Personnel Management
Third Party Administrator (TPA): A TPA is an organization retained by a Payor to receive and apply Payor rules, validate Healthcare Invoices and issue payments on behalf of the Payor.Clinical Reports
tightly coupled: Tightly coupled application roles assume that common information about the subject classes participating in a message is available to system components outside of the specific message.Doc: glossary
Time Charge: An extra time charge in addition to the professional fee that may be charged by a pharmacist when preparing a compound.Clinical Reports
Time-based Criterion: Personnel Management
Tissue-Typing: Tissue Typing/HLA-typing: A blood test that helps evaluates how closely the tissues of the donor match those of the recipient.Clinical Genomics
TissueTypingFacility: The examination of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) in a patient. Tissue typing is done for all donors and recipients in organ transplantation to help match the donor and recipient.Clinical Genomics
TPA/Payor: A label used to refer to processes that may be performed by either a TPA or Payor. For example, in some circumstances a Payor may both administer a Healthcare Invoice and authorize benefits, while in other circumstances a Payor may act as a TPA for another Payor.Clinical Reports
transaction: A complete set of messages for a particular trigger event, e.g., a message and a response.Doc: glossary
transport wrapper: A wrapper that contains information needed by a sending application or message handling service to route the message payload to the designated receiver. All HL7 Version 3 messages SHALL have an appropriately configured transport wrapper.Doc: glossary
trigger event: An event which, when recorded or recognized by an application, indicates the need for an information flow to one or more other applications, resulting in one or more interactions.Doc: glossary
Types of Annotation to Region Relationships: There are some annotation codes that can mean slightly different things depending on the context. For example, the annotation "Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)" could mean two different things when related to a region: "The subject was in AFib here.", or "The subject experienced an episode of AFib from here to there." There are 2 act relationships in HL7 to distinguish between these two types of annotations. The "has support" relationship is the more general one to be used for "there is AFib here" types of annotations. The "has bounded support" relationship can be used to declare the boundaries of the annotation, "there is a (bounded) episode of AFib here."Regulated Studies
UML: See Unified Modeling Language.Doc: glossary; The Unified Modelling Language specification is maintained by the Object Management Group. The specification can be found at http://www.uml.orgDoc: its r2spec
Unified Modeling Language: A language for the creation of domain models. UML was created in order to unify several well-known object-oriented modeling methodologies, including those of Booch, Rumbaugh, Jacobson, and others.Doc: glossary
union message: A message type that contains the elements of several message structures drawn from the same Hierarchical Message Description. A union message includes all the message elements that SHALL be sent from one application role to all other application roles in response to a trigger event.Doc: glossary
universal CMET: A CMET variant that includes all attributes and associations present in the R-MIM. Any of non-mandatory and non-required attributes and/or associations may be present or absent, as permitted in the cardinality constraints.Common Message Element Types
Up-charge: A percentage that may be added to the cost of a product when calculating the cost of a claim.Clinical Reports
user: In the context of conformance claims, the organization that uses an application. This is frequently the buyer but in some cases the user and sponsor organizations may be parts of the same organization, or otherwise have a business relationship other then vendor-buyer.Doc: glossary
Vaccination forecast: The vaccine administration recommendations, based on the previous history of vaccination, patient/client age, and patient/client health conditions. These recommendations would be derived from the series selected in the schedule selected.Immunization
Vaccination history: The collection of vaccine doses actually administered to a patient.Immunization
Vaccine: The product that composes an immunization.Immunization
Vaccine group/vaccine family: The set of vaccines that can be administered to meet the patient's goal of being protected against a particular infectious disease or set of diseases.Immunization
Valid Document: A document which meets all of the validity constraints in the XML SpecificationDoc: glossary
Value Domain: A ValueDomain is a set of accepted representations for the intended meanings of a DataElementConcept. A ValueDomain may act as an indirect reference to a domain that is defined in another registry. If so, it will have no child EVDElements. The externally-defined domain will be identified through the ValueDomain's Source* attributes. If an application receives a refererence to an externally defined domain, it should treat it in this way (in examples, we'll suppose that the domain is "Severity" as defined in LOINC) SourceCodingSystem is the name of the coding system (or coding scheme) that contains the domain definition. An example would be LOINC. SourceCodingSystemGUID is the identifier of the coding system holding the domain definition (for LOINC, it would be the official GUID by which LOINC as a whole is known). SourceCodingSystemVersion supplies the version number of the coding system containing the domain of interest. If it is 3.0, then the receiver should look for the domain definition in version 3.0 of the specified coding system. SourceDomainId is the identifier of the domain of interest within the specified coding system. If the concept Severity has the coded identifier 789 within LOINC, the value of SourceDomainId would be 789. The attribute values pin down the concept that defines the domain. Some externally-defined domains will have enumerated values. The set of enumerated values will be taken to be those concepts that are the immediate children of the specified domain concept. The enumerated values must constitute a flat list. E.g., for Severity, LOINC might supply Mild, Moderate, Severe. This list is already flat (there are no grandchildren of Severity, just children). This would be the set of EVD Elements. If there are grandchildren, the receiver should disregard them in constructing the list of EVD Elements. For example, in SNOMED, the concept BodySite has a long list of children. One of these is Kidney. Kidney is further subdivided into two grandchildren: Left Kidney and Right Kidney. The receiver of a reference to BodySite would include Kidney in the list of enumerated elements, but leave out grandchildren such as Left Kidney and Right Kidney.Regulated Studies
value set: A vocabulary domain that has been constrained to a particular realm and coding system.Doc: glossary
Version 3 Guide: A companion to the Version 3 Standard which contains the methodological information an HL7 member needs to understand the Version 3 standard.Doc: glossary
Virtual Encounter: A patient encounter where the patient and the practitioner(s) are not in the same physical location. Examples include telephone conference, email exchange, robotic surgery, and televideo conference.Patient Administration
Vision Product Billable Act: The set of information to describe the dispensing of a vision care product to a patient that is billed in an invoice. This may include among other things - date of service, vision care product specification, prescription and prescriber, performer, location and diagnosis.Clinical Reports
vocabulary: The set of valid values for a coded attribute or field. For more information refer to the Vocabulary section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
vocabulary domain: The set of all concepts that can be taken as valid values in an instance of a coded attribute or field; a constraint applicable to code values. For more information refer to the Vocabulary Domains section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
vocabulary domain qualifier: Part of a vocabulary domain specification. The two existing qualifiers are extensibility and realm. For more information refer to the Vocabulary Domain Qualifiers section of the Version 3 Guide.Doc: glossary
vocabulary domain specification: A column in the Hierarchical Message Description that specifies the vocabulary domain associated with a coded attribute.Doc: glossary
W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium, an international industry consortiumDoc: glossary
W3C Schema: The three-part schema specification issued by the W3C • XML Schema Part 0: Primer , W3C Recommendation, 2-May-2001 • XML Schema Part 1: Structures, W3C Recommendation, 2-May-2001 • XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes, W3C Recommendation, 2-May-2001Doc: glossary
Waveform Encoding: The rhythm waveforms are encoded as an Observation Series in HL7. The series contains one or more Correlated Observation Sequences ("correlation" for short). Each correlation encodes the leads that were sampled together and correlated with the same relative time points. If all 12 leads were sampled together (assuming a 12-lead ECG), only one correlation is required. This correlation would contain a sequence for relative time and 12 sequences for the 12 different leads. If time was evenly sampled (as it usually is), a GLIST<> is used for generating the sequence of time points from a few parameters. The lead sequences would use the SLIST<> for encoding the voltages. The SLIST<> can factor out a common offset and scale factor (if the raw integer A/D values encoded). The offset and scale factor can be used for converting the stored values to real physical quantities. If a 12-lead ECG is recorded on a device that only samples 3 leads at a time, for example, the Observation Series would contain 4 correlations. Each correlation would encode the leads that were sampled together. Each correlation would contain one sequence for time relative to the beginning of the recording, and 3 sequences for the 3 leads sampled. If the device has a few more channels and records one or more rhythm leads during the whole recording, the rhythm leads would appear in each correlation as well.Regulated Studies
Well-formed document: A document which meets all of the well-formedness constraints in the XML SpecificationDoc: glossary
Workflow: The sequence of activities by an individual that is required to complete a specific business process.Patient Care
wrapper: The control or envelope information in which the message payload resides. See transport wrapper and control event wrapper .Doc: glossary
XHTML: XHTML 1.0. A Reformulation of HTML 4 in XML 1.0. W3C Recommendation 26-January-2000, revised 1 August 2002Doc: glossary
XML: See Extensible Markup Language.Doc: glossary
XML Declaration: An XML document consists of a prolog, root document element, and other objects. A data object is an XML document if it is well-formed, as defined in the XML specification.Doc: glossary
XSL: Extensible Style Language, a specification of the W3C An XSL stylesheet specifies the presentation of a class of XML documents by describing how an instance of the class is transformed into an XML document that uses the formatting vocabulary.Doc: glossary
XSLT: XSL transformation language, a specification of the W3C A language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents.Doc: glossary