Exporting related data in FHIR

Question

Using the bulk export ($export) functionality of FHIR, I am able to export all resources given a query. What I am unsure about is how to export data related to these resources.

For example, suppose I want to export all MedicationDispense resources of 2024:

{{fhirurl}}/$export?_type=MedicationDispense&_typeFilter=MedicationDispense?whenhandedover=2024

...how do I select all referenced Medication resources (through MedicationDispense > medicationReference)? The following code gives me all Medication resources, not only the ones referenced by the selected MedicationDispense resources.

{{fhirurl}}/$export?_type=MedicationDispense,Medication&_typeFilter=MedicationDispense?whenhandedover=2024

Ashavan · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-24 02:59:12Z

1

There isn't a great solution for this currently, as the typeFilter query parameter is explicitly defined to not support _include. The best approach would be to parse the returned MedicationDispense resources and then run a new export for the relevant Medications.

answered Feb 24 at 2:59

Ashavan

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3 Comments

Michiel Meulendijk Feb 25 at 10:55

Thanks, this seems quite an odd decision. I would imagine this use case occurs in many business environments. I am considering containing dependent Medication resources in the MedicationDispense resource as a workaround.

Ashavan Feb 26 at 18:41

It isn't entirely bizarre. Bulk FHIR produces NDJSON files per resource type; if typeFilter did support _include, you'd have to think about how that impacts the bulk request. Your type parameter might need to define the related resource types you want to export (Medication, in your example), but then that leads to some confusion as to whether you want on Medications linked MedicationDispenses or all Medications independently. My point being, supporting _include is not trivial.

Ashavan Feb 26 at 18:42

If you feel there should be to the Bulk FHIR IG, however, you can use the "Propose a change" at the bottom of each page in the IG to submit a change request.

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