Extending FHIR Functionality

The SanteDB FHIR subsystem allows developers to easily add new behaviours, resources, and operations. The following extension points and interfaces are exposed in the SanteDB FHIR package:

  • Message Operations (IFhirMessageOperation) - Used to add new FHIR message operations into the SanteDB stack (i.e. on the $process-message interface)

  • Operations (IFhirOperationHandler) - Used to add new FHIR operations invoked using $operationName

  • Custom Extensions (IFhirExtensionHandler) - Used to add/expose individual extensions on the existing endpoints and messages.

  • Behavior Modifier (IFhirRestBehaviorModifier) - Used to intercept operations on the FHIR interface and modify the behaviour of the call.

  • Profile / Validation (IFhirProfileValidationHandler) - Used to perform validation on any resource which is created/updated. This is typically used on the $validate message.

Message Operations

FHIR Messaging allows for complex operations to be invoked using a Bundle which contains a MessageHeader resource. For example, in order to implement an operation HelloWorld , a FHIR message may contain:

{
  "resourceType": "Bundle",
  "type": "message",
  "entry": [
    {
      "fullUrl": "MessageHeader/example-1",
      "resource": {
        "resourceType": "MessageHeader",
        "id": "example-1",
        "eventUri": "urn:hello:world",
        "source": {
          "endpoint": "http://ohie.org/test/harness"
        },
        "focus": [
          {
            "reference": "Parameters/example-1"
          }
        ],
        "destination": [
          {
            "endpoint": "http://ohie.org/test/endpoint/Bundle"
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "fullUrl": "Parameters/example-1",
      "resource": {
        "resourceType": "Parameters",
        "parameter": [
          {
            "name": "your-name",
            "valueString": "Bob!"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Given the contrived example above, you can register a new IFhirMessageOperation to be invoked when the operation urn:hello:world message trigger you would implement a handler.

/// <summary>
/// A sample FHIR operation for Hello World
/// </summary>
public class HelloWorldOperation : IFhirMessageOperation
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The event URI which this operation should be invoked
    /// </summary>
    public Uri EventUri => new Uri("urn:hello:world");

    /// <summary>
    /// Actually perform the operation
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="requestHeader">The FHIR MessageHeader which was in the original request</param>
    /// <param name="entries">The entries in the focus of the message header</param>
    /// <returns>The result of the operation</returns>
    public Resource Invoke(MessageHeader requestHeader, params Bundle.EntryComponent[] entries)
    {
         // Do Hello World Stuff Here
    }
 }

Registering your Message Handler

Finally, SanteDB does not automatically enable all operations, therefore it is required to register your operation handler in the messages portion of the FHIR configuration section.

<section xsi:type="FhirServiceConfigurationSection" restEndpoint="FHIR" >
    <messages>
      <add>urn:hello:world</add>
    </messages>
  </section>

Rest Operations

REST operations are invoked using the GET or POST method on a scoped resource. Typically the invoke is in the form: http://example.com/fhir/Patient/$operation . FHIR REST operations can be registered with an implementation of IFhirOperationHandler , for example, a FHIR operation for hello-world may be called as GET http://example.com/fhir/Patient/$hello-world.

To implement the hello-world operation, a C# class is written.

/// <summary>
/// IHE PIXm Operation
/// </summary>
public class HelloWorldOperation : IFhirOperationHandler
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the name of the operation on the URL
    /// </summary>
    public string Name => "hello-world";

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the URI of the operation which is exposed in the CapabilityStatement
    /// </summary>
    public Uri Uri => new Uri("http://example.com/fhir/hello-world");

    /// <summary>
    /// Applies to which resources (returning an empty array indicates this is a system operation)
    /// </summary>
    public ResourceType[] AppliesTo => new ResourceType[] { ResourceType.Patient };

    /// <summary>
    /// Called when a GET or POST is executed against the URL
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="parameters">The parameters object passed (if the operation was a POST)</param>
    /// <returns>The resource representing the result of the operation</returns>
    public Resource Invoke(Parameters parameters) {
        // Do Hello World FHIR Stuff
    }
}

Finally, SanteDB does not automatically enable all operations, therefore it is required to register your operation handler in the messages portion of the FHIR configuration section.

<section xsi:type="FhirServiceConfigurationSection" restEndpoint="FHIR" >
    <operations>
      <add>hello-world</add>
    </operations>
  </section>

Extension Handlers

By default, SanteDB's internal properties are mapped to FHIR base resources, and this is handled through the DataTypeConverter class. You may, however, have a need to expose additional data, relationships, or receive them. This can be done by using FHIR Extensions.

FHIR Extension handlers are implemented using the IFhirExtensionHandler interface. For example, if you wanted to implement an extension handler which tags a patient if the value of the extension is a certain value.

If the data you are capturing in your extension is registered as Extended Data in the RIM the FHIR handler will automatically map these to extensions and tags in FHIR.

/// <summary>
/// FHIR Extension Handler 
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// This interface is used when processing resources to/from FHIR and allow
/// custom FHIR extensions to map data from extensions into the underlying 
/// objects in the CDR schema.
/// </remarks>
public class FavoriteColorExtensionHandler : IFhirExtensionHandler
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the URI of the extension which appears within a resource
    /// </summary>
    public Uri Uri => new Uri("http://example.com/fhir/extensions/reviewState");

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the URI of the profile that this extension is defined in 
    /// which is exposed on the profile definition.
    /// </summary>
    public Uri ProfileUri => new Uri("http://example.com/fhir/profiles/example");
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the resource type that this applies to (or null if it applies to all types)
    /// </summary>
    public ResourceType? AppliesTo => ResourceType.Patient;

    /// <summary>
    /// Before returning the model object to the caller this method is called
    /// so that your extension handler can construct the FHIR Extension
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="modelObject">The object that was loaded from the database which you can use to load data for your extension</param>
    /// <returns>The constructed FHIR extension</returns>
    public Extension Construct(IIdentifiedEntity modelObject) {
        if(modelObject is IHasStatus status) {
            if(status.StatusConceptKey == StatusKeys.New) {
                return new Extension() {
                    Url = this.Uri.ToString(),
                    Value = "not-reviewed"
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Parse the specified extension from FHIR and update the <paramref name="modelObject"/> accordingly
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="fhirExtension">The FHIR Extension to parsed</param>
    /// <param name="modelObject">The current model object into which the extension data should be added</param>
    /// <returns>True if the extension was parsed successfully</returns>
    public bool Parse(Extension fhirExtension, IdentifiedData modelObject) {
          if(modelObject is IHasStatus status) {
              if(fhirExtension.Value == "not-reviewed") {
                  status.StatusConceptKey = StatusKeys.New;
              } else {
                  status.StatusConceptKey = StatusKeys.Active;
              }
          }
    }

}

Finally, SanteDB does not automatically enable all extensions, therefore it is required to register your extension handler in the messages portion of the FHIR configuration section.

<section xsi:type="FhirServiceConfigurationSection" restEndpoint="FHIR" >
    <extensions>
      <add>http://example.com/fhir/extensions/reviewState</add>
    </extensions>
  </section>
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