Worked examples

This page shows request and response shapes for the common operations. The FHIR shapes are fixed by the specification. The values are illustrative.

Warning

These examples are planned. FerroTERM has no running server yet, so you cannot send these requests today. The request and response shapes follow the FHIR terminology specification, and the concrete codes and displays are placeholders.

• $lookup a concept
• $subsumes two concepts
• $validate-code against a value set
• $expand an ECL value set
• An error

$lookup a concept

Read a concept’s display and properties:

GET /CodeSystem/$lookup?system=http://snomed.info/sct&code=73211009

A Parameters response carries the name, the display, and the requested properties:

{
  "resourceType": "Parameters",
  "parameter": [
    { "name": "name", "valueString": "SNOMED CT" },
    { "name": "display", "valueString": "Diabetes mellitus (disorder)" }
  ]
}

$subsumes two concepts

Test whether one concept subsumes another:

GET /CodeSystem/$subsumes?system=http://snomed.info/sct&codeA=73211009&codeB=44054006

The response reports the relationship, one of subsumes, subsumed-by, equivalent, or not-subsumed:

{
  "resourceType": "Parameters",
  "parameter": [
    { "name": "outcome", "valueCode": "subsumes" }
  ]
}

$validate-code against a value set

Check that a code is a member of a value set:

GET /ValueSet/$validate-code?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=isa/73211009&system=http://snomed.info/sct&code=44054006

{
  "resourceType": "Parameters",
  "parameter": [
    { "name": "result", "valueBoolean": true }
  ]
}

$expand an ECL value set

Expand an implicit value set named by ECL, one page at a time:

GET /ValueSet/$expand?url=http://snomed.info/sct?fhir_vs=ecl/<<73211009&count=20&offset=0

The response is an expanded ValueSet whose expansion.contains holds the page of members, with total reporting the full set size:

{
  "resourceType": "ValueSet",
  "expansion": {
    "total": 137,
    "offset": 0,
    "contains": [
      { "system": "http://snomed.info/sct", "code": "73211009", "display": "Diabetes mellitus (disorder)" }
    ]
  }
}

An error

An invalid or unknown input returns an OperationOutcome:

{
  "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
  "issue": [
    { "severity": "error", "code": "code-invalid", "diagnostics": "Unknown code '00000' in system 'http://snomed.info/sct'." }
  ]
}

See The FHIR terminology API for the operation list and Implicit value sets and ECL for the ECL URL convention.