Stream: implementers
Topic: Resource.identifier?
Xiao Yang (Mar 28 2019 at 21:18):
We want to use the Resource.identifier (https://www.hl7.org/fhir/resource.html#identifiers) field to store ID alias. I notice that most resources have this field while some don't (e.g., Binary - https://www.hl7.org/fhir/binary.html).
Can someone help me understand the rationale behind whether a resource should include the identifier field?
Thank you very much!
Jean Duteau (Mar 28 2019 at 21:34):
Only resources that would conceivably have business identifiers will have an identifier field. Since Binary resources are just the raw artifacts, it does not make sense to have an identifier. If you want to have an identifier, you would use the DocumentReference which allows for binary content along with the resource metadata such as an identifier.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
