Stream: implementers
Topic: Pain observation
Ludvig Eek Hofmann (Apr 14 2021 at 06:49):
Hi!
We have now started to create an observation profile for Pain. It is a NRS Pain scale that should be communicated. 0-10.
Our first idea was to create a valueSet with the codes 0-10 with display name: NRS 0, NRS 1 etc.
Is there a best practice on how to handle such scales as an NRS. In our internal system the level is of pain is stored as a string.
Do you have any recommendations?
Craig Newman (Apr 14 2021 at 15:10):
Looks like there is an HL7 project for pain assessment (https://www.hl7.org/special/Committees/projman/searchableProjectIndex.cfm?action=edit&ProjectNumber=1585) which includes FHIR profiles. I don't see a "pain" IG but you might want to specific ask this group how they have done this and if there is an existing profile you can use. I'd swear I've seen it, but don't recall where.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Apr 14 2021 at 15:22):
Why do you need to create a ValueSet?
Jose Costa Teixeira (Apr 14 2021 at 15:23):
You can simply use an Observation with Code= (your pain scale) and .valueInteger =the actual pain assessment value)
Jose Costa Teixeira (Apr 14 2021 at 15:24):
that is what we have in Belgium
Tilo Christ (Apr 14 2021 at 17:21):
LOINC has a 10 step value set for this: https://loinc.org/72514-3/
But would also be very interested to see the outcomes of the pain project. Their GitHub is looking empty unfortunately. There was also a discussion on the implementers channel quite a while ago how to represent a VAS for pain, but with no satisfying outcome, both for the modelling and the representation in a questionnaire.
Morten Ernebjerg (Apr 15 2021 at 05:44):
We're also using LOINC 72514-3 & the associated 0-10 LOINC answer list (LL2335-9) for capturing back pain scores in a questionnaire.
Lloyd McKenzie (Apr 16 2021 at 16:35):
If the integers have 'meaning' (e.g. 'minimal pain' vs. 'extreme pain', then using codes is appropriate. The integers would be ordinal values for the code. A valueInteger is more for when you're counting things
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
