This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v0.11: DSTU 1 Ballot 3). The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions . Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2

Resource Group - Content 5.8

Represents a defined collection of entities that may be discussed or acted upon collectively but which are not expected to act collectively and are not formally or legally recognized. I.e. A collection of entities that isn't an Organization.

The resource name as it appears in a RESTful URL is [root]/group/

There are 2 resources that provide for constructing collections of other resources:

• The List resource - enumerates a collection of resources that are in some list, and provides features for managing the list. The list resource references other resources
• This Group resource - defines a group of specific people, animals, devices, etc. by enumerating them, or by describing qualities that group members have. The group resource refers to other resources, possibly implicitly

The group resource is used in one of two ways:

1. To define a group of specific people, animals, devices, etc. that is being tracked, examined or otherwise referenced as part of healthcare-related activities; and
2. To define a set of *possible* people, animals, devices, etc. that are of interest for some intended future healthcare-related activities

Examples of the former could include group therapy or treatment sessions, exposed entities tracked as part of public health, etc. The latter might be used to define expected subjects for a clinical study.

Both use cases are handled by a single resource because the data elements captured tend to be similar.

Resource Content 5.8.1

<Group xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir">
 <!-- from Resource: extension, narrative, and contained -->
 <identifier><!-- 0..1 Identifier Unique id § --></identifier>
 <type value="[code]"/><!-- 1..1 Group Classification § -->
 <actual value="[boolean]"/><!-- 1..1 Descriptive or actual § -->
 <code><!-- 0..1 CodeableConcept Kind of Group members § --></code>
 <name value="[string]"/><!-- 0..1 Label for Group § -->
 <quantity value="[integer]"/><!-- 0..1 Number of members § -->
 <characteristic>  <!-- 0..* Trait of group members -->
  <type><!-- 1..1 CodeableConcept Kind of characteristic --></type>
  <value[x]><!-- 1..1 CodeableConcept|string|boolean|Quantity|Range Value held by characteristic --></value[x]>
  <exclude value="[boolean]"/><!-- 1..1 Group includes or excludes -->
 </characteristic>
 <member><!-- 0..* Resource(Patient|Practitioner|Device|Medication) Who is in group --></member>
</Group>

Alternate definitions: Schema/Schematron, Resource Profile

Terminology Bindings 5.8.1.1

Path	Definition	Type	Reference
Group.type	Types of resources that are part of group	Fixed	http://hl7.org/fhir/group-type
Group.code	Kind of particular resource	Unknown	No details provided yet
Group.characteristic.type	List of characteristics used to describe group members. E.g. gender, age, owner, location, etc.	Unknown	No details provided yet
Group.characteristic.value[x]	Value of descriptive member characteristic	Unknown	No details provided yet

Constraints 5.8.1.2

• Inv-1: Can only have members if group is "actual" (xpath: f:actual/@value='true' or not(exists(f:member)))
• Inv-4: Can't have more members associated with the group than the value specified for "quantity" (xpath: not(f:quantity) or not(f:member) or not(f:quantity>count(f:member)))
• Inv-3: On Group.member: Member resource types must agree with group type (xpath on f:Group/f:member: lower-case(f:type/@value)=parent::f:Group/f:type/@value or (f:type/@value='Patient' and parent::f:Group/f:type/@value=('animal','person')))

Search Parameters 5.8.2

Search Parameters for RESTful searches. The standard parameters also apply. See Searching for more information.

Name / Type	Description	Paths
_id : token	The logical resource id associated with the resource (must be supported by all servers)
actual : token	Descriptive or actual	Group.actual
code : token	The kind of resources contained	Group.code
exclude : token	Group includes or excludes	Group.characteristic.exclude
group-type : token	The type of resources the group contains	Group.type
identifier : token	Unique id	Group.identifier
member : reference	Who is in group	Group.member
type : token	Kind of characteristic	Group.characteristic.type
type-value : composite	A composite of both type and value
value : token	Value held by characteristic	Group.characteristic.value[x]