View raw Markdown
type: resourceresource: Evidence

Evidence

Introduction

Scope and Usage

The Evidence Resource enables the expression of the most granular form of evidence, such as the actual quantitative results of a study or scientific analysis.

Human-readable summaries of the Evidence Resource may be expressed in description, assertion, and note elements. The description element is typically used for the primary expression. The assertion element is less commonly used and is typically used for interpretive expression. The note element may be used for any number of explanatory, variant, or related comments.

The variableDefinition element is used to describe what the evidence is about. Each variable defined must be assigned a variable role which signals how that variable is used in the statistics within the Evidence Resource. The variable definition may be expressed in human-readable form (with a description element) and/or expressed in computable form by referencing Group or EvidenceVariable Resources. In general, Group Resources are used to define populations and EvidenceVariable Resources are used to define measured variables (exposures, outcomes, and covariates). The variableDefinition element allows expression of the observed variable and the intended variable. In many forms of expression the Evidence is interpreted for a specific context and recognition of both observed and intended variables is important for understanding the applicability and certainty of the evidence.

The heart of the evidence is the statistic. The statistic BackboneElement provides a machine-interpretable expression of a statistic, including the quantity; unit of measure; classification of statistic type; sample size; attributes such as confidence intervals, p values, and heterogeneity estimates; and statistic model characteristics. An Evidence Resource may contain more than one statistic, in which case each statistic matches the same combination of variable definitions.

Because a statistic can rarely be interpreted without knowing how it was obtained, the Evidence Resource enables expression of the studyDesign. For evidence derived from synthesis of evidence, the Evidence Resource enables expression of the synthesisType.

The certainty element provides a machine-interpretable expression of certainty, confidence or quality of the resource in which it is included. The certainty element can express overall certainty and certainty of any subcomponent concepts using codeable concepts from structured rating systems. The certainty element enables machine-to-machine communication of the certainty of evidence.

Boundaries and Relationships

The Evidence Resource is the central atomic component for the Evidence-related Resources. The Evidence Resource may reference multiple Group and EvidenceVariable Resources; in these cases, the Group and EvidenceVariable Resources to which an Evidence Resource points does not refer back to the Evidence. In the context of evidence synthesis, a List Resource may reference Evidence Resources where the List Resource is used to define the set of evidence being synthesized.

StructureDefinition

Elements (Simplified)

Mappings

Resource Packs

list-Evidence-packs.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<List xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir">
  <id value="Evidence-packs"/>
  <status value="current"/>
  <mode value="working"/>
</List>

Search Parameters

Full Search Parameters

Examples

Full Examples

Mapping Exceptions

evidence-fivews-mapping-exceptions.xml

Unmapped Elements