Bulk data servers should implement the OAuth based SMART backend services authorization process. On the requests outlined below, clients should include an Authorization
header containing the bearer token received from the authorization flow. If the server responds to a request with a 401 Unauthorized
header, the client should follow the authorization flow to obtain a new token.
This FHIR Operation initiates the asynchronous generation of data files for all patients, a group of patients, or all available data contained in a FHIR server.
Note: Only data the client application has authorization to access and that the relevant business agreements allow should be returned.
GET [fhir base]/Patient/$export
GET [fhir base]/Group/[id]/$export
FHIR Operation to obtain data on all patients listed in a single FHIR Group Resource. Note: How these groups are defined will be implementation specific for each clinical system. For example, a payer may send a healthcare institution a roster file that can be imported into their EHR to create or update a FHIR group. FHIR based roster management is out of scope for the bulk data project, but would be a valuable project.
GET [fhir base]/$export
Export data from a FHIR server whether or not it is associated with a patient. This supports use cases like backing up a server or exporting terminology data by restricting the resources returned using the _type
parameter.
-
Accept
(required)Specifies the format of the optional OperationOutcome response to the kick-off request. Currently, only application/fhir+json is supported.
-
Prefer
(required)Specifies whether the response is immediate or asynchronous. Currently must be set to
respond-async
.
-
_outputFormat
(string, optional, defaults toapplication/fhir+ndjson
)The format for the generated bulk data files. Currently, only ndjson is supported. Servers should support the full content type of
application/fhir+ndjson
as well as abbreviated representations includingapplication/ndjson
andndjson
. -
_since
(FHIR instant type, optional)Resources updated after this period will be included in the response
Note: This parameter was named
start
in an earlier version of this proposal -
_type
(string of comma-delimited FHIR resource types, optional)Only resources of the specified resource types(s) will be included in the response. If this parameter is omitted, the server should return all supported resources that the client has authorization to access and that the relevant business agreements allow. The Patient Compartment should act as a point of reference for recommended resources to be returned as well as other resources outside of the patient compartment that are helpful in interpreting the patient data such as Organization and Practitioner.
Note: Some implementations may limit the resources returned to specific subsets of FHIR like those defined in the Argonaut Implementation Guide
- HTTP Status Code of
202 Accepted
Content-Location
header with a url for subsequent status requests- Optionally a FHIR OperationOutcome in the body
- HTTP Status Code of
4XX
or5XX
- Optionally a FHIR OperationOutcome in the body
After a bulk data request has been kicked-off, clients can send a delete request to the url provided in the Content-Location
header to cancel the request.
DELETE [polling content location]
- HTTP Status Code of
202 Accepted
- Optionally a FHIR OperationOutcome in the body
- HTTP status code of
4XX
or5XX
- Optionally a FHIR OperationOutcome in the body
After a bulk data request has been kicked-off, clients can poll the url provided in the Content-Location
header to obtain the status of the request.
Note: Clients should follow an exponential backoff approach when polling for status. Servers may supply a Retry-After header with a http date or a delay time in seconds. When provided, clients should use this information to inform the timing of future polling requests.
Note: The Accept
header for this request should be application/json
. In the case that errors prevent the export from completing, the response will a JSON-encoded FHIR OperationOutcome resource.
GET [polling content location]
- HTTP Status Code of
202 Accepted
- Optionally an
X-Progress
header with a text description of the status of the request that's less than 100 characters. The format of this description is at the server's discretion and may be a percentage complete value or a more general status such as "in progress". Clients can try to parse this value, display it to the user, or log it.
- HTTP status code of
5XX
- Optionally a JSON FHIR OperationOutcome in the body
- Even if some resources cannot successfully be exported, the overall export operation may still succeed. In this case, the
Response.error
array of the completion Response must be populated (see below) with one or more files in ndjson format containingOperationOutcome
resources to indicate what went wrong.
-
HTTP status of
200 OK
-
Content-Type header
ofapplication/json
-
Optionally an
Expires
header indicating when the files listed will no longer be available. -
A body containing a json object providing metadata and links to the generated bulk data files.
Required Fields:
transactionTime
- a FHIR instant type that indicates the server's time when the query is run. No resources that have a modified data after this instant should be in the response.request
- the full url of the original bulk data kick-off requestrequiresAuthorizationToken
- boolean value indicating whether downloading the generated files will require an authentication token. Note: This may be false in the case of signed S3 urls or an internal file server within an organization's firewall.output
- array of bulk data file items with one entry for each generated file. Note: If no data is returned from the kick-off request, the server should return an empty array.error
- array of error file items following the same structure as theoutput
array. Note: If no errors occurred, the server should return an empty array. Note: Only theOperationOutcome
resource type is currently supported, so a server will generate ndjson files where each row is anOperationOutcome
resource.
Each file item should contain the following fields:
type
- the FHIR resource type that is contained in the file. Note: Each file may only contain resources of one type, but a server may create more than one file for each resources type returned. The number of resources contained in a file is may vary between servers. If no data is found for a resource, the server should not return an output item for it in the response.url
- the path to the file. The format of the file should reflect that requested in the_outputFormat
parameter of the initial kick-off request.
Each file item may optionally contain the following field:
count
- the number of resources in the file, represented as a JSON number.
Example response body:
{ "transactionTime": "[instant]", "request" : "[base]/Patient/$export?_type=Patient,Observation", "requiresAuthorizationToken" : true, "output" : [{ "type" : "Patient", "url" : "http://serverpath2/patient_file_1.ndjson" },{ "type" : "Patient", "url" : "http://serverpath2/patient_file_2.ndjson" },{ "type" : "Observation", "url" : "http://serverpath2/observation_file_1.ndjson" }], "error" : [{ "type" : "OperationOutcome", "url" : "http://serverpath2/err_file_1.ndjson" }] }
Using the urls supplied in the completed status request body, clients can download the generated bulk data files (one or more per resource type). Note: These files may be served by a file server rather than a FHIR specific server. Also, if the requiresAuthorizationToken
field in the status body is set to true
the request must include a valid access token in the Authorization
header in these requests.
GET [url from status request output field]
Accept
(optional, defaults toapplication/fhir+ndjson
)
Specifies the format of the file being returned. Optional, but currently only application/fhir+ndjson is supported.
- HTTP status of
200 OK
Content-Type
header ofapplication/fhir+ndjson
- Body of FHIR resources in newline delimited json - ndjson format
- HTTP Status Code of
4XX
or5XX
- Legal framework for sharing data between partners - BAAs, SLAs, DUAs should continue to be negotiated out-of-band
- Real-time data (although data loaded through bulk data can be supplemented at with synchronous FHIR REST API calls)
- Data transformation and transmission - different step of the ETL process
- Patient matching (although, it’s possible to include identifiers like subscriber number in FHIR resources)
- Management of FHIR groups within the clinical system - the bulk data operation will require a valid group id, but does not specify how FHIR Groups resources are created and maintained within a system
- Moved output links from
Link
header to body and defined an output JSON format - Added
output-format
parameter to differentiate between the format of the response to the request and the format of the linked output files
- Renamed
output-format
parameter to_outputFormat
since it can apply to any async request - Added
DELETE
method to status endpoint - Changed the operation name to
$export
(under discussion) - Changed
start
parameter to_since
to align with existing FHIR semantics
- Added recommendation around use of
Retry-After
header
- Added recommendation around use of
Accept
header in status request
- Added system wide
$export
- Renamed
secure
torequiresAuthorizationToken
- Added
error
andcount
properties to copmletion response