canonical

FHIR R5 data type for referencing conformance and terminology artifacts.

Definition

Where Reference points to an instance by its location, canonical points to a resource by its business url, independent of any server. A version is appended after a pipe, e.g. ...|4.0.1. Used for profiles, ValueSet, CodeSystem, StructureDefinition and other canonical resources.

Origin

Defined in the HL7 FHIR specification (the canonical primitive type and the « Canonical Resources » concept), published by HL7 International.

Example in context

"profile": [ "http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/bp|4.0.1" ]

Related terms

• Reference (FHIR) — reference to an instance by location.