Stream: implementers
Topic: Question about documentation for Coding
John Gresh (Jun 09 2017 at 13:06):
The documentation for Coded Values, Systems, and Value Sets posted at https://www.hl7.org/fhir/terminologies.html#valuesets indicates that codes are pairs: a code and a system. Shouldn't a code be a triplet: a code, a system, and a version? One example of where this is functionally relevant would be validation. A Code can exist in one version of a system and not an other. How is this distinction made? Is it something in the url for the system? If this is the case what is the version attribute of Coding used for (https://www.hl7.org/fhir/datatypes.html#Coding)? Can the documentation be extended to include an example of specifying a Coding from a specific version of a Coding System?
Lloyd McKenzie (Jun 09 2017 at 13:42):
The meaning can generally be extracted from just the pair as most systems don't significantly change the meaning of concepts between versions. That said, version can be identified as part of the Coding data type if it's necessary - i.e. if the version significantly affects the interpretation of the code.
Grahame Grieve (Jun 09 2017 at 22:23):
we could clarify that sentence to mention version as well.
Lloyd McKenzie (Jun 10 2017 at 05:01):
@John Gresh Would you be willing to submit a change proposal?
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
