FHIR Chat · What system to reference for valueCoding for choice question · questionnaire

Stream: questionnaire

Topic: What system to reference for valueCoding for choice question

view this post on Zulip Diane (Jul 10 2021 at 22:54):

When we try to validate our questionnaires(using either the IG validator or HAPI validation), we are getting a warning about our questions with type "choice":

A code with no system has no defined meaning. A system should be provided.

Here are some examples of our FHIR answerOption definitions if this helps:

For a drop-down question "What is the status of this institution's acceptance as a relying site in this research study?"?

"answerOption" : [
{
"valueCoding" : {
"code" : "1",
"display" : "Accepted"
}
},
{
"valueCoding" : {
"code" : "2",
"display" : "Declined"
},
{
"valueCoding" : {
"code" : "3",
"display" : "Still in process/No decision has been made"
}

        }
    ]

or

For a drop-down question "Does this Research Study Use Recruitment Materials?"?

"answerOption" : [
{
"valueCoding" : {
"code" : "1",
"display" : "Yes"
}
},
{
"valueCoding" : {
"code" : "2",
"display" : "No"
}
}
]

What do others in the Questionnaire community use as the system for these types of questions?

For the system, can we have a page in our user manual on our website (that hosts our webpages/software) to describe all of the codes and then use this URL (eg. www.mysite.com/usermanual/choice-codes) as our system in the FHIR Questionnaire answerOption valueCoding?

view this post on Zulip Lloyd McKenzie (Jul 10 2021 at 23:17):

You have a choice of making up a code system or using an existing one. The latter is preferred from an interoperability perspective.

view this post on Zulip Lloyd McKenzie (Jul 10 2021 at 23:18):

E.g. https://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem-v2-0532.html

view this post on Zulip Diane (Jul 10 2021 at 23:27):

We had a lot of discussions and the decision made by the whole team was 1 for Yes and 2 for No. Since we have made up our own code system, for the system, do we reference our site (eg. www.mysite.com/usermanual/choice-codes) which will have the code definitions? Or should we put the code definitions in the IG and reference the IG?

view this post on Zulip Diane (Jul 10 2021 at 23:45):

If we make up our own, and we use 1 = "Yes" and 2 = "No" then should we avoid reusing 1 and 2 to mean something else later in the questionnaire like 1 = "sIRB site" and 2 = "Relying site"? If we do reuse 1 and 2 to mean different things, then I guess we need a new url for each system?

view this post on Zulip Lloyd McKenzie (Jul 11 2021 at 14:26):

Each code must have a single meaning. If you re-use codes, you'll need multiple CodeSystems. You'll also need to define and publish those CodeSystem instances in the IG. Expect negative ballots for not using standardized codes where you can...

view this post on Zulip Diane (Jul 11 2021 at 20:57):

It sounds like for the Yes/No questions, it would be best to align to the FHIR standard. Is this the correct syntax below? Are we allowed to use only Yes and No from the code set (since we don't want answers like NA )? Or should we list https://terminology.hl7.org/ValueSet-v2-0136.html as the system because that code set has only Yes and No?

"answerOption" : [
                {
                    "valueCoding" : {
                       "system" : "https://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem-v2-0532.html",
                       "code" : "Y",
                       "display" : "Yes"
                    }

                },
                {
                    "valueCoding" : {
                       "system" : "https://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem-v2-0532.html",
                       "code" : "N",
                       "display" : "No"
                    }
                }


    ]

view this post on Zulip Lloyd McKenzie (Jul 11 2021 at 21:19):

Either of those two code systems would work. You should look for standard codes for other things too. For those you need to create custom codes for (at least for now), best practice is to stick them in a single "temporary" code system within your IG, with an expectation that long-term, you'd look to add them to LOINC, SNOMED, one of the HL7 code systems or something else 'standard' if possible once your IG has matured a bit.

Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC


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