EvidenceReport — Scientific synthesis report
The FHIR version of a Cochrane Systematic Review: a structured, narrative synthesis of a set of Evidence resources on a specific clinical topic.
Purpose of the resource
EvidenceReport represents a structured narrative report aggregating several
Evidence resources on a single clinical topic — for example a systematic review with
meta-analysis. It carries a precise subject (PICO, device, drug), narrative
section blocks (Background, Methods, Results, Discussion) and
relatesTo links to the aggregated Evidence resources.
Key fields
| Field | Type | Cardinality | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
url | uri | 0..1 | Canonical URL. |
identifier | Identifier[] | 0..* | Business identifiers (DOI, PROSPERO). |
status | code | 1..1 | draft | active | retired | unknown. |
useContext | UsageContext[] | 0..* | Clinical context (focus, age, sex). |
relatedIdentifier | Identifier[] | 0..* | Associated identifiers (registries). |
citeAs[x] | Reference(Citation) | markdown | 0..1 | Recommended citation format. |
type | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Report type. |
note | Annotation[] | 0..* | Annotations. |
relatedArtifact | RelatedArtifact[] | 0..* | Related artefacts (DataDictionary). |
subject | BackboneElement | 1..1 | Subject (encoded PICO). |
publisher | string | 0..1 | Publishing body. |
contact | ContactDetail[] | 0..* | Contacts. |
author | ContactDetail[] | 0..* | Authors. |
editor | reviewer | endorser | ContactDetail[] | 0..* | Editorial roles. |
relatesTo | BackboneElement[] | 0..* | Links to other reports. |
section | BackboneElement[] | 0..* | Report sections. |
JSON example
{
"resourceType": "EvidenceReport",
"id": "example-evidence-report",
"url": "http://example.org/EvidenceReport/sr-anticoagulant-2026",
"status": "active",
"useContext": [{
"code": {
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/usage-context-type",
"code": "focus"
},
"valueCodeableConcept": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
"code": "266257000",
"display": "Atrial fibrillation"
}]
}
}],
"type": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/evidence-report-type",
"code": "research-protocol"
}]
},
"subject": {
"characteristic": [{
"code": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/focus-characteristic-code",
"code": "medication-class"
}]
},
"valueCodeableConcept": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://www.whocc.no/atc",
"code": "B01AF",
"display": "Direct factor Xa inhibitors"
}]
}
}]
},
"publisher": "Example Cochrane Group",
"section": [{
"title": "Background",
"text": {
"status": "generated",
"div": "<div xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">Background section.</div>"
}
}]
}Common pitfalls
- Section without
focus— aggregators cannot discriminate the content. - No Citation — prefer pointing to a FHIR Citation rather than free text.
- Ambiguous relatesTo — qualify (replaces, derived-from, predecessor, successor).
Related resources
- Evidence — statistical result.
- EvidenceVariable — population, intervention.
- Citation.
- Composition — clinical analogue.
- FHIR R5 hub.