List — Ordered list of resources
One of FHIR's foundational resources. A generic container that groups resources of the same domain with an order, a title and a review status. Ideal for "active problems", "known allergies", "current medications", worklists.
Purpose of the resource
While Bundle is a transaction or search-response container (transient),
List is a persistent container that models a business worklist. A List has a
title, a status (current / retired / entered-in-error), a mode (snapshot / changes /
working), a review date and a source. It can be ordered by priority, alphabetically, or
by date.
Typical cases: a patient's active problem list (Problem List, LOINC 11450-4), current medication list (Medication List), allergy list, consultation queue, pre-op queue, batch of specimens.
Key fields
| Field | Type | Cardinality | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
identifier | Identifier[] | 0..* | External identifiers. |
status | code | 1..1 | current, retired, entered-in-error. |
mode | code | 1..1 | working, snapshot, changes. |
title | string | 0..1 | Human title. |
code | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Semantic type (LOINC 11450-4 Problem List, etc.). |
subject | Reference(Any)[] | 0..* | Subject (most often Patient). |
encounter | Reference(Encounter) | 0..1 | Associated Encounter. |
date | dateTime | 0..1 | Creation date. |
source | Reference | 0..1 | Author (Practitioner, Patient, Device). |
orderedBy | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Sort criterion. |
note | Annotation[] | 0..* | General notes. |
entry | BackboneElement[] | 0..* | Items. |
entry.flag | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Item flag (change, urgency…). |
entry.deleted | boolean | 0..1 | Deleted item (in changes mode). |
entry.date | dateTime | 0..1 | Add/remove date. |
entry.item | Reference(Any) | 1..1 | Pointed resource. |
emptyReason | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Reason for an empty list (closed, nothing-known…). |
JSON example
Active problem list for a patient with diabetes, hypertension, CKD stage 3 and a resolved
childhood asthma flagged deleted:
{
"resourceType": "List",
"id": "patient-active-problems",
"identifier": [{ "system": "http://example.org/lists", "value": "PROB-LIST-2026-001234" }],
"status": "current",
"mode": "snapshot",
"title": "Active problem list",
"code": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://loinc.org",
"code": "11450-4",
"display": "Problem list"
}]
},
"subject": { "reference": "Patient/example" },
"encounter": { "reference": "Encounter/example-stay" },
"date": "2026-05-16T10:00:00+02:00",
"source": { "reference": "Practitioner/dr-jones" },
"orderedBy": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/list-order",
"code": "priority",
"display": "Sorted by priority"
}]
},
"entry": [{
"flag": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/list-item-flag",
"code": "01"
}]
},
"item": { "reference": "Condition/diabetes-type-2" }
}, {
"item": { "reference": "Condition/hypertension" }
}, {
"item": { "reference": "Condition/ckd-stage-3" }
}, {
"deleted": true,
"item": { "reference": "Condition/asthma-childhood-resolved" }
}],
"emptyReason": null
}Typical use cases
- Problem List: synthesis of active comorbidities.
- Allergy List: grouping of active AllergyIntolerance.
- Medication List: current treatment.
- Clinical worklist: consultation queue, pre-op queues.
- Summary document: a section of a Composition or IPS Summary.
- Differential diagnosis: candidate diagnoses to investigate.
Common pitfalls
- Wrong mode:
snapshotis immutable;changestracks additions/removals;workingis the current edit mode. Pick the right mode to avoid ambiguous versions. - Empty list without
emptyReason: an empty list without a reason does not distinguish "nothing to report" from "not documented". - List / Bundle / Composition confusion: Bundle = transport. Composition = persistent document with sections. List = reusable business grouping.
- Entry.deleted in snapshot mode: inconsistent.
deletedonly makes sense inchanges. - Non-standardised list code: use LOINC for Problem List (11450-4), Allergy List (48765-2), Medication List (10160-0).
Related resources
- Condition, AllergyIntolerance, MedicationStatement — typically listed items.
- Composition — a section of a document can be a List.
- Bundle — can carry a List + its items.
- Group — equivalent for statistical cohorts.
See also: Bundle — transaction container and Composition — structured document.