Frequently Asked Question

A reference is a link that points to an external record. The element or value of the record is therefore not directly available in the file, but the file contains a pointer that can be followed to another information component to retrieve the required complete information.

Example: In the FHIR resource AllergyIntolerance for the element AllergyIntolerance.Reaction.Manifestation, a "CodableReference" can be used, from the FHIR R5 version, which points to the Observation resource of the primary record of the manifestation which was made at the time it was present, for example by the emergency doctor. This avoids double encoding of the same clinical event.