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Version: 3.0

Definitions & Terminology

The reusable definitions, templates, and coded value sets the rest of Care is built from: questionnaires and their templates, value sets, and the activity, observation, specimen, charge-item, and product definitions that instance records reference.

📄️Observation Definition

An ObservationDefinition is master data describing how a particular observation is captured — its code, permitted data type, unit, method, body site, and (interpretation) reference ranges. You create one when you need a measurement collected consistently across forms; questionnaires reference it so the same observation (blood pressure, say) is recorded the same way everywhere, whether instance-wide or within a single facility. One observation code can back several definitions. The model loosely follows the FHIR ObservationDefinition resource.

📄️Specimen Definition

A SpecimenDefinition is a reusable, facility-scoped template for a kind of specimen: what material to collect, how to prepare the patient, how to collect it, and how it's held in a container for testing. A lab maintains a repository of these, and an Activity Definition or Service Request references one so the same container and handling rules apply every time. When a concrete Specimen is instantiated from a definition, the link is kept and the specimen copies the definition's data for history and integrity.