Existing Wording: • Data Element: question about specificity

Comment:

we have to allow different types with different amounts of specificity , but be sure that the message contains what ever is needed. Implies that the actual answer list used to answer a question should always b available either by value or reference. Also will require that the units of measure be in a standard form and a data element can only carry different UoM that are commensurate. And that can be transformed The genesis of the absolute ideas about data elements comes from an organization that has big funding but not much success in generating adoption of their approach.And that can be transformed among commensurate UoM. The genesis of the absolute ideas about data elements comes from an organization that has big funding but not much success in generating adoption of their approach.

The connection to ISO 11179 is deeply problematic, because the data elements as conceived in FHIR are migratory—like free electron's - that is they can exist in many contexts and generally move from a message to a data base when received from an external source. And it can be any arbitrary data base. But ISO 11179 is intended to define elements in one specified data base. The data element gets tied to a particular property and object of that data base- and that object and property are defining characteristics of the data element. (11179 works fine in that context_ But it creates a huge impedance mismatch when you deal with "fee electron" data elements that have no home data base. Creates crazy realities.

Another and deep problem with data elements is the name and the confounding with the use of "data element" as building blocks of resources. Those are more like data base data elements. The things in questionnaires should have a different name. In the survey literature they are most commonly called data items. Using the same name for different things always leads to confusion.

From the frame work :

1.7.1.1 Framework

FHIR is based on "Resources" which are the common building block for all exchanges. Each resource has the following common features:

• A URL that identifies it

• Common metadata

• A human-readable XHTML summary

• A set of defined common data elements