Description
FHIR packages can be registered in the official FHIR package registry through external package feeds listed in the FHIR/ig-registry.
While package feeds allow package versions and their basic metadata to be discovered and imported, there does not appear to be a standardized way to provide release notes for a specific package version through such a feed.
This creates a difference between packages that are published directly through registry tooling that supports release notes and packages that are discovered through external package feeds.
For example, a terminology publisher may provide:
- a package name and version
- a package description
- a publication date
- the downloadable
package.tgz
- detailed version-specific release notes
The release notes may describe changes such as:
- added or removed terminology concepts
- changes to existing concepts
- metadata changes
- bug fixes
- dependency changes
- other relevant changes between package versions
Currently, these version-specific release notes cannot apparently be propagated through the package feed into the official FHIR package registry.
Example use case
The German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) publishes FHIR terminology packages via an external package feed, for example:
https://terminologien.bfarm.de/feeds?publishToHl7=true
For each package version, additional structured release information may be available on the publisher side.
It would be useful if this information could also be exposed as the Release Notes of the respective package version in the official FHIR package registry.
For example:
de.gematik.hddt.terminology#1.0.0
Release notes:
Initiale Version des FHIR Packages für HDDT terminologies 1.0.0. Dieses Package enthält die Terminologien für die Spezifikation Health Device Data Transfer (HDDT) im FHIR-Format. Es stellt die erforderlichen ValueSets, CodeSystems und ConceptMaps bereit, um den standardisierten und interoperablen Austausch von geräte-generierten Gesundheitsdaten zwischen Hilfsmitteln, Implantaten und Digitalen Gesundheitsanwendungen (DiGA) gemäß § 374a SGB V zu unterstützen. Das Package basiert auf international etablierten Terminologien wie LOINC und SNOMED CT. Deren semantische Eigenschaften werden auf FHIR-Terminologie-Ressourcen abgebildet und für die maschinenlesbare Verarbeitung innerhalb von HDDT-basierten Implementierungen verfügbar gemacht. Ein zentrales Element dieses Packages sind die durch HDDT definierten Mandatory Interoperable Values (MIVs). MIVs repräsentieren semantisch klar abgegrenzte Klassen von Messwerten, die zur Unterstützung spezifischer DiGA-Anwendungsfälle und therapeutischer Zielsetzungen erforderlich sind. Jeder MIV wird durch beschreibende Semantik sowie ein kuratiertes Set von Terminologie-Codes definiert, um Interoperabilität und klinische Eignung der ausgetauschten Messdaten sicherzustellen. Darüber hinaus dienen MIVs als semantische Grundlage für SMART-on-FHIR v2 Scopes der Autorisierung, wodurch eine feingranulare, messwertspezifische Zugriffskontrolle innerhalb von HDDT-basierten Backend-APIs ermöglicht wird. Dieses FHIR-Package bildet die semantische Interoperabilitätsschicht für HDDT-Profile und Backend-Dienste und ist für den Einsatz in FHIR R4-basierten Implementierungen vorgesehen, um die Integration persönlicher Gesundheitsgerätedaten in DiGA-gestützte Versorgungsprozesse zu ermöglichen.
Question / Proposal
Is there already a supported mechanism for providing version-specific release notes through an external FHIR package feed?
If not, would it make sense to extend the package feed format with an optional release-notes element, for example conceptually:
<fhir:releaseNotes>
...
</fhir:releaseNotes>
The exact representation is not important from our perspective. The main requirement would be to have a standardized mechanism that allows external package publishers to provide version-specific release notes which can then be displayed by the official FHIR package registry.
Expected benefit
This would improve:
- transparency of package updates
- traceability between package versions
- interoperability between external package publishers and the official registry
- visibility of terminology and conformance resource changes
- consistency between directly published packages and packages imported through external feeds
Would this be something that should be defined in FHIR/ig-registry, the FHIR package feed specification, or another repository/specification?
Description
FHIR packages can be registered in the official FHIR package registry through external package feeds listed in the
FHIR/ig-registry.While package feeds allow package versions and their basic metadata to be discovered and imported, there does not appear to be a standardized way to provide release notes for a specific package version through such a feed.
This creates a difference between packages that are published directly through registry tooling that supports release notes and packages that are discovered through external package feeds.
For example, a terminology publisher may provide:
package.tgzThe release notes may describe changes such as:
Currently, these version-specific release notes cannot apparently be propagated through the package feed into the official FHIR package registry.
Example use case
The German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) publishes FHIR terminology packages via an external package feed, for example:
https://terminologien.bfarm.de/feeds?publishToHl7=trueFor each package version, additional structured release information may be available on the publisher side.
It would be useful if this information could also be exposed as the Release Notes of the respective package version in the official FHIR package registry.
For example:
Question / Proposal
Is there already a supported mechanism for providing version-specific release notes through an external FHIR package feed?
If not, would it make sense to extend the package feed format with an optional release-notes element, for example conceptually:
The exact representation is not important from our perspective. The main requirement would be to have a standardized mechanism that allows external package publishers to provide version-specific release notes which can then be displayed by the official FHIR package registry.
Expected benefit
This would improve:
Would this be something that should be defined in
FHIR/ig-registry, the FHIR package feed specification, or another repository/specification?