Stream: committers
Topic: Backbone Element Questions
Julie Evans (Mar 15 2017 at 16:11):
A few questions about Backbone Elements:
- Is a Backbone Element an element in a resource that is a grouping of meaningfully-related sub-elements? (I see the definition for Backbone Element in the spec: “The base definition for elements defined as part of a resource definition”. There seems to be a bit more to it than the definition describes).
- Rules for deciding if an element should be a Backbone Element or a Resource: Is it correct to say that a set of info would be a Backbone Element vs a Resource if the set of info isn’t able to exist on its own without further contextual info?
- Is it correct to say that in converting UML classes to FHIR resources, that a class would be represented in FHIR as a backbone element if that class has a composition relationship to the “owning class” or has a 1…1 or 1..* relationship with the “owning class”?
- Is there any additional doc available about Backbone Elements other than what is published in the spec?
Thanks for any help in clarifying.
Lloyd McKenzie (Mar 15 2017 at 16:42):
@Julie Evans There's information on the characteristics that resources need to have documented here: http://wiki.hl7.org/index.php?title=FHIR_Resource_Considerations#Resources. In general, yes - BackboneElements are UML composition, while Reference is used for aggregation relationships
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
