FHIR Data

FHIR Data and Dynamic Objects

Since FHIR data is often represented as dynamic objects within InterSystems products, knowing how to work with dynamic objects is essential. The following code fragments provide an introduction to manipulating with dynamic objects that contain FHIR data. As you’ll see, you need to be familiar enough with the FHIR specificationOpens in a new tab to know the structure of fields in the JSON representation of a FHIR resource. For complete details on handling dynamic objects, see Using JSON.

These code examples assume you have a variable patient that is a dynamic object containing a FHIR Patient resource.

Searching for a Value

The following code searches through identifiers of the Patient resource looking for a particular system using two different approaches. In order to write this code, you would need to be familiar enough with the FHIR specification to know that the JSON structure of a Patient resource contains an identifier that has a system name/value pair.

// Put JSON representation of Patient resource into a dynamic object
set patient = ##class(%DynamicObject).%FromJSON("c:\localdata\myPatient.json")

//Searching for a identifier with a specific system
set mySystem = "urn:oid:1.2.36.146.595.217.0.1"

//Approach 1: Use an Iterator
if $isobject(patient.identifier) {
  set identifierIterator = patient.identifier.%GetIterator()
  while identifierIterator.%GetNext(, .identifier) {
    if identifier.system = mySystem {
      write "Found identifier: " _ identifier.value,!
    }
  }
}

//Approach 2: Use a 'for' loop
if $isobject(patient.identifier) {
  for i=0:1:patient.identifier.%Size()-1 {
    set identifier = patient.identifier.%Get(i)
    if identifier.system = mySystem {
      write "Found identifier: " _ identifier.value,!
    }
  }
}

Extracting a Value

The following code fragment extracts the family name from the Patient resource.

if $isobject(patient.name) && (patient.name.%Size() > 0) {
  set myFamilyname = patient.name.%Get(0).family
}

Modifying a Value

The following code fragment sets the Patient resource’s active field, which is a boolean, to 0.

do patient.%Set("active", 0, "boolean")

Adding a New JSON Object

When you want to add a new JSON object to an existing dynamic object, you can choose whether to use an ObjectScript syntax or a JSON syntax. For example, the following code adds a new identifier to the patient, using two different approaches that have the same result.

set mySystem = "urn:oid:1.2.36.146.595.217.0.1"
set myValue = "ABCDE"

// Approach 1: Use JSON syntax
if '$isobject(patient.identifier) {
  set patient.identifier = ##class(%DynamicArray).%New()
 }

do patient.identifier.%Push({
  "type": {
    "coding": [
      {
        "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v2-0203",
        "code": "MR"
      }
    ]
  },
  "system": (mySystem),
  "value": (myValue)
})

//Approach 2: Use ObjectScript syntax
set identifier = ##class(%DynamicObject).%New()

set typeCode = ##class(%DynamicObject).%New()
set typeCode.system = "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v2-0203"
set typeCode.code = "MR"

set identifier.type = ##class(%DynamicObject).%New()
set identifier.type.coding = ##class(%DynamicArray).%New()
do identifier.type.coding.%Push(typeCode)
set identifier.system = mySystem
set identifier.value = myValue

if '$isobject(patient.identifier) {
  set patient.identifier = ##class(%DynamicArray).%New()
 }
 do patient.identifier.%Push(identifier)

Data Load Utility

The Data Load utility sends resources and bundles that are stored in a local system directory directly to the FHIR server with or without going over HTTP. The local FHIR data fed into the Data Load utility can be individual resources, bundles, or both, and can be expressed in JSON, XML, or both. A common use of this utility is feeding large amounts of synthetic data from open source patient generators into the FHIR server.

If getting data to the FHIR server as fast as possible is the objective, it is better to send it directly to the server without using HTTP. In this case, pass the FHIRServer argument to the Data Load utility along with the server’s endpoint. For example, suppose the server’s endpoint is /fhirapp/fhir/r4 and the directory that contains FHIR bundles is c:\localdata. To run the Data Load utility, enter

Set status = ##class(HS.FHIRServer.Tools.DataLoader).SubmitResourceFiles("c:\localdata","FHIRServer","/fhirapp/fhir/r4")

The utility should print Completed Successfully when it is done processing the files. If it does not, you can print any errors by entering Do $SYSTEM.Status.DisplayError(status).

Alternatively, you can send all the bulk data over HTTP by passing HTTP along with the name of a Service Registry HTTP service. For more information about creating a HTTP service, see Managing the Service Registry. For example, you could run:

Set status = ##class(HS.FHIRServer.Tools.DataLoader).SubmitResourceFiles("c:\localdata","HTTP","MyUniqueServiceName")

The Data Load utility takes three optional arguments that control whether it displays progress, logs statistics, or limits the number of files in the directory that it will process. For details on these arguments, see HS.FHIRServer.Tools.DataLoader.SubmitResourceFiles()Opens in a new tab