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type: resourceresource: EvidenceVariable

EvidenceVariable

Introduction

Scope and Usage

This resource is a definition resource from a FHIR workflow perspective - see Workflow, specifically Definition.

The scope of the EvidenceVariable Resource is to describe an element that knowledge (evidence) is about. The EvidenceVariable Resources are expected to be used with Evidence Resources to facilitate searching and knowledge representation.

Evidence may be reported for different types of knowledge. One commonly used format for expression of what evidence is about is the "PICO" format. PICO stands for:

Population - the population within which exposures and outcomes are being considered

Intervention - the conditional state or exposure state being described for which one is expressing the risk of or effect on an outcome

Comparison - the alternative conditional state or alternative exposure state when one is comparing states for the effect on an outcome

Outcome - the result or effect of an intervention or exposure in a population

PICO (and its variants like PECO using E for Exposure or PICOT adding T for Timing) is a universal acronym used in evidence-based medicine communities to clearly express research questions and evidence findings.

The EvidenceVariable Resource allows expression of the components of a PICO question in codeable and reusable formats. The EvidenceVariable.definition element has a CodeableReference datatype which can define the PICO component as a concept and/or reference to a Group Resource.

The EvidenceVariable Resource is also used within ResearchStudy to describe the endpoint for an outcome measure.

Boundaries and Relationships

The Resource describing evidence findings (Evidence) will reference EvidenceVariable to describe what the evidence findings are about.

The Resource describing a research study protocol (ResearchStudy) will reference EvidenceVariable to describe the endpoint for an outcome measure.

Background and Context

This resource may describe the intervention or exposure for which an evidence summary is applicable, or may describe the outcome or measured variable that an evidence summary is about. These descriptions could be used in coded specifications of recommendations from clinical practice guidelines to facilitate the translation from guidelines to clinical decision support artifacts. These descriptions could be used in Summary of Findings tables from systematic reviews to facilitate the representation of medical knowledge when creating recommendations. These descriptions could be used in classification of new evidence reports to facilitate recognition of signal for updating existing evidence summaries and recommendations.

StructureDefinition

Elements (Simplified)

Mappings

Resource Packs

list-EvidenceVariable-packs.xml

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

<List xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://hl7.org/fhir ../../publish/List.xsd">
  <id value="EvidenceVariable-packs"/>
  <status value="current"/>
  <mode value="working"/>
</List>

Search Parameters

Full Search Parameters

Examples

Full Examples

Mapping Exceptions

evidencevariable-fivews-mapping-exceptions.xml

Unmapped Elements