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  1. FHIR Specification Feedback
  2. FHIR-27157

Location near search should clarify which unit string to use for miles

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    • Icon: Change Request Change Request
    • Resolution: Persuasive with Modification
    • Icon: Medium Medium
    • FHIR Core (FHIR)
    • R4
    • Patient Administration
    • Location
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      The units used here should be ucum (default for fhir) and we should clarify this in the documentation here as requested - which means that the value as defined in http://hl7.org/fhir/valueset-all-distance-units.html

      If the server is unable to understand the units, it should report an error in the OperationOutcome and fail the search - provided the server does process the near parameter, just that this data is invalid, otherwise the parameter would just be reported as not used by the search.

      Note: mi would be insufficient to work out which sort of miles to compare with, and would need to be [mi_us]

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      The units used here should be ucum (default for fhir) and we should clarify this in the documentation here as requested - which means that the value as defined in http://hl7.org/fhir/valueset-all-distance-units.html If the server is unable to understand the units, it should report an error in the OperationOutcome and fail the search - provided the server does process the near parameter, just that this data is invalid, otherwise the parameter would just be reported as not used by the search. Note: mi would be insufficient to work out which sort of miles to compare with, and would need to be [mi_us]
    • Brian Postlethwaite / Alex de Leon : 3-0-0
    • Clarification
    • Non-substantive
    • R5

    Description

      Current text:

      Search for locations where the location.position is near to, or within a specified distance of, the provided coordinates expressed as [latitude]|[longitude]|[distance]|[units] (using the WGS84 datum, see notes). If the units are omitted, then kms should be assumed. If the distance is omitted, then the server can use its own discretion as to what distances should be considered near (and units are irrelevant) Servers may search using various techniques that might have differing accuracies, depending on implementation efficiency. Requires the near-distance parameter to be provided also

       

      During the Provider Directory track at connectathon 24, the MITRE client was performing a search with the unit string "mi", but our server didn't know how to interpret that.

      While I'd prefer everyone to use "km", it seems like we could benefit from some more specific language wrt whether/how to support location search in miles.

      Here is my proposed change:

      Search for locations where the location.position is near to, or within a specified distance of, the provided coordinates expressed as [latitude]|[longitude]|[distance]|[units] (using the WGS84 datum, see notes). Servers which support the near parameter SHALL support the unit string "km" for kilometers and SHOULD support both "mi" and "[mi_us]" for miles; support for other units is optional. If the units are omitted, then kms should be assumed...

       

      PS.  Please also note that the last sentence of the current description is a fragment...maybe just add a period to the end of that?

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            Egelkraut Reinhard Egelkraut
            lmsurprenant Lee Surprenant
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