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The FHIR Extraction endpoint reads a free-text clinical note and returns the clinical content as structured FHIR R4 resources. FHIR is the HL7 standard that most electronic health records (EHRs) use to exchange clinical data. Each resource the endpoint returns carries a standard code, plus the context a clinician wrote around it, such as whether a diagnosis is confirmed, when it started, and which body site it affects.
FHIR Extraction is in beta. The request and response schemas can still change. Contact us to share feedback or report issues.

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From a sentence to a resource

A clinician writes one sentence:
FHIR Extraction turns that sentence into one Condition resource. Simplified, it reads like this: The real response holds the same information in standard FHIR JSON. FHIR basics explains how to read it.

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Why not just a list of codes?

A common way to structure a note is to reduce it to a list of codes:
A list of codes tells you what the note mentions, but nothing about how the note mentions it. Take this note:
FHIR keeps the differences that a list of codes loses: Many concepts have no place in a list of codes at all. A blood pressure reading, a smoking history, or a normal heart exam each become their own FHIR resource with a value and a unit.

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What you get back

The response is a FHIR R4 Bundle: a list of resources. Every response contains one Patient and one Encounter, followed by the clinical resources the endpoint found in the note, sorted into six resource groups: The endpoint codes clinical concepts with SNOMED CT, and measurements, such as lab results, vital signs, and survey scores, with LOINC. Status fields, such as clinicalStatus, use the value sets that FHIR defines. Every value the endpoint takes from the note links back to the words that support it.

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When to use FHIR Extraction

Use the endpoint for clinical content that only exists as free text:
  • Write structured data into an EHR. Turn a dictated or generated note into Condition, Procedure, and Observation resources that your EHR imports through its FHIR API. The response is valid FHIR R4, as How the response meets FHIR R4 explains.
  • Build a problem list. Collect active conditions, with their verification status, across a patient’s notes.
  • Power decision support. Feed allergies, conditions, and exam findings into rules that need structured input.
  • Analyze populations. Count conditions, but keep confirmed and refuted diagnoses apart, and skip family history.
Do not use it to re-create data you already have in structured form, such as lab results from your lab system or vital signs from monitors. A note often copies such a value by hand, rounds it, or repeats an old result, so extracting it again can only add errors. Reduce extraction errors explains how to turn those parts off.

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Next steps

FHIR Extraction quickstart

Send your first note and read the response.

FHIR basics

Learn to read resources, CodeableConcepts, and Bundles, with examples.

How FHIR Extraction works

Learn the rules behind every response, such as positive codes and status fields.

Filter FHIR resources

Produce only the resources you need and restrict the codes they carry.
Please contact us if you have questions about FHIR Extraction or need help getting started.