This page is part of the EU Health Data API (v1.0.0-ballot: STU1 Ballot 1) based on FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) R4. This is the current published version in its permanent home (it will always be available at this URL). For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Functional Requirements

This section describes the functional capabilities and technical requirements for implementing the EU Health Data API.

Actor Model

The specification defines composite actors that inherit from existing IHE and HL7 specifications. See Actors and Transactions for detailed actor definitions, groupings, and transaction requirements.

Core Functional Areas

Capability Discovery

Systems use FHIR CapabilityStatement to discover what priority categories and exchange patterns a provider supports. See Capability Discovery.

Authorization

System-to-system authorization using SMART Backend Services and IHE IUA. Required for all transactions. See Authorization.

Patient Identification

Patient demographics query using IHE PDQm to locate the correct patient before accessing health information. See Patient Matching.

Document Exchange

Exchange of FHIR Documents (Patient Summaries, Lab Reports, Discharge Reports, etc.) using IHE MHD transactions. See Document Exchange.

Resource Access

Query individual FHIR resources (Observations, Conditions, Medications, etc.) using IPA/QEDm patterns. See Resource Access.

Relationship Between Functional Areas

All exchange patterns follow a common flow:

1. Discover capabilities via CapabilityStatement
2. Authorize using SMART Backend Services
3. Identify the patient using PDQm
4. Access data via Document Exchange or Resource Access

The specification allows implementations to support document exchange only, resource access only, or both patterns depending on their use case and architecture.