Stream: conformance
Topic: profile-element Extension
Julian Carter (May 11 2021 at 13:49):
Hello all! I've got a few questions related to the profile-element extension. The description on the extension states that the extension is used when a backbone element is being profiled, rather than an established type. Is it possible for this extension to be used on complex elements that aren't backbone elements?
Lloyd McKenzie (May 11 2021 at 14:19):
Why would you need to? Profiling data types is already allowed...
Chris Moesel (May 11 2021 at 14:53):
@Lloyd McKenzie I think the question is if it is allowed. The narrative description suggests it is for backbone elements, but that is not enforced via any constraints. We're implementing this in SUSHI and want to know if we should support it in all cases or only for backbone elements.
To provide a use case, however: US Core constrains address inline in the US Core Patient profile rather than providing an explicit profile on Address. If I wanted to have my Patient profile constrain address the same way, I'd have to redefine all the constraints. OR... I could use the profile-element extension to say that my profile's address takes on the constraints of USCorePatientProfile.address -- which establishes a more formal relationship and prevents unintentional misalignment.
Chris Moesel (May 11 2021 at 14:57):
But again, the description of the extension suggests it is for backbone element only -- so if that's the case, fine. We just want to know if we should consider that as a formal requirement even though it is not expressed in a constraint.
Lloyd McKenzie (May 11 2021 at 15:14):
I'd say we'd need to add more documentation if we were going to use it as you propose - feel free to submit a change request for us to consider doing that.
Chris Moesel (May 11 2021 at 15:36):
OK. It sounds like for now, then, SUSHI should only support it for backbone element. We don't want to produce profiles that rely on underspecified components of FHIR or that the current tooling will likely choke on.
Julian Carter (May 11 2021 at 17:19):
Thank you all for the clarification!
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
