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Profile Validation

Profile validation ensures that FHIR resources conform to specific profile-constrained resource types defined in Implementation Guides. Rather than validating only against the base FHIR specification, profile validation checks resources against more specific rules, constraints, and extensions required by a particular profile (e.g., US Core Patient, AU Base Patient).

Overview​

FHIR profiles constrain and extend the base resource definitions. The validator checks:

  • Cardinality -- Required elements are present, max occurrences not exceeded
  • Data types -- Values conform to expected types and patterns
  • Value domains -- Coded elements use acceptable values
  • Constraint validation -- Element constraints such as regex patterns are satisfied
  • Structure -- Resource is well-formed and properly organized

Validating Against a Profile​

To validate a FHIR resource against a specific profile, pass the profile type as the second argument to the validate function. The validator will check the resource against the constraints defined in that profile.

import ballerina/io;
import ballerinax/health.fhir.r4;
import ballerinax/health.fhir.r4.international401;
import ballerinax/health.fhir.r4.validator;

public function main() returns error? {

    json body = {
      "resourceType": "Patient",
      "id": "591841",
      "meta": {
        "versionId": "1",
        "lastUpdated": "2020-01-22T05:30:13.137+00:00",
        "source": "#KO38Q3spgrJoP5fa"
      },
      "identifier": [ {
        "type": {
          "coding": [ {
            "system": "http://hl7.org/fhir/v2/0203",
            "code": "MR"
          } ]
        },
        "value": "18e5fd39-7444-4b30-91d4-57226deb2c78"
      } ],
      "name": [ {
        "family": "Cushing",
        "given": [ "Caleb" ]
      } ],
      "birthDate": "jdlksjldjl"
    };

    r4:FHIRValidationError? validateFHIRResourceJson = validator:validate(body, international401:Patient);

    if validateFHIRResourceJson is r4:FHIRValidationError {
        io:print(validateFHIRResourceJson);
    }
}

The validate function returns FHIRValidationError when validation fails.

Base Resource Validation vs Profile Validation​

ApproachUsageDescription
Base validationvalidator:validate(body)Validates against the base FHIR resource model. The resource type is determined from the payload.
Profile validationvalidator:validate(body, ProfileType)Validates against a specific profile-constrained resource type (e.g., international401:Patient).

Use base validation when you need to check general FHIR compliance. Use profile validation when your resources must conform to a specific Implementation Guide.