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Data Formats

Medblocks supports exporting data in the openEHR FLAT composition format and as FHIR through Plugins

Supported formats​

Medblocks UI can be used with multiple output and input formats. Here are some of the currently supported targets.

openEHR simSDT FLAT​

By default the mb-form exports data according to the openEHR simSDT data format. The paths are automatically generated from the openEHR web template by the VSCode extension and the path attribute are set for the custom elements. Once the data is filled out in these fields, the internal data property gets populated. These are then serialized to the simSDT format when the submit button is clicked. mb-context elements are smartly populated during submit. Things like time, event, category, setting, language, encoding are auto-populated. This can be overridden by setting the ctx property of mb-form.

FHIR​

FHIR format and paths are experimental and might undergo breaking changes.

<mb-fhir-form> supports translation of paths and Medblocks UI components into FHIR resources and Questionnaires. For example, the following representation in HTML:

<mb-fhir-form>
  <mb-context path="resourceType" bind="Patient"></mb-context>
  <mb-input label="Name" path="name[0].given[0]"></mb-input>
  <mb-date label="Date of birth" path="birthDate"></mb-date>
  <mb-buttons datatype="code" label="Gender" path="gender">
    <mb-option value="male" label="Male"></mb-option>
    <mb-option value="female" label="Female"></mb-option>
    <mb-option value="other" label="Other"></mb-option>
  </mb-buttons>
</mb-fhir-form>

can output the following FHIR resource when submitted:

{
    "resourceType": "Patient",
    "name": [{
                    "given": ["My Name"]
            }],
    "birthDate": "2000-03-02",
    "gender": "male"
}

Since there are two target outputs for Coded Text in FHIR - CodedText and code, these need to be explicitly stated in the datatype attribute - eg: in mb-buttons for gender.

For a more detailed tutorial, follow this video:

Writing your own plugins​

Medblocks UI relies on a plugin mechanism to handle multiple data types. The mb-form web component has a plugin property that can be replaced by any other class with the following interface:

export interface MbPlugin {
  /**Serialize EHRElement to the output format - eg: openEHR FLAT format, FHIR resource.*/
  serialize(mbElements: { [path: string]: EhrElement }): any;
  /**Parse output format to internal representation. */
  parse(mbElements: { [path: string]: EhrElement }, data: any): any;
  /**Handle an empty mb-context given a ctx object. */
  getContext(
    path: string,
    ctx: any,
    nonNullPaths: string[],
    mbElements: { [path: string]: EhrElement }
  ): any;
}

By default, mb-form uses the openEHRFlat plugin. There is also a FHIR plugin available to handle FHIR elements. This is the default plugin while using the mb-fhir-form element. You can write your own plugins by writing the following methods:

serialize​

This is called right after the form data is submitted. The function takes the internal representation of mb-form and translates it to the desired output which is emitted as the detail of the mb-submit event.

Input/Output: mbElements provides an object with the path as the key and the Custom HTML Element (EhrElement) as the value. You can process the data in the HTML element, usually in the data property, and provide the serialized output that you desire.

parse​

This is called when the import method of the form is called. Responsible for returning the internal state of the form, so that it can be bound to the data property of the custom elements.

Input/Output: Provides the mbElements as well as the unprocessed data to be parsed. The function must return an object with the path as keys, and the data to be set on the HTML Elements' data property.

getContext​

This is an optional function that's useful when auto-populating the form with useful information like time, subject, participant when using mb-context. Look at the inbuilt plugins for more details.