Glossary

API (Application Programming Interface)

A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other.

EHDS (European Health Data Space)

A proposed EU framework for enabling secure cross-border exchange of health data, empowering citizens and advancing health research.

EHR (Electronic Health Record)

A digital system for storing, managing, and sharing a patient's complete medical history across healthcare providers.

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)

A modern standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically, developed by HL7 International.

FHIR Bundle Resource

A FHIR container resource that groups multiple resources together for transmission, storage, or processing as a single unit.

FHIR DiagnosticReport Resource

A FHIR resource that represents the findings and interpretation of diagnostic tests, including laboratory reports.

FHIR Observation Resource

A FHIR resource that represents a single measurement or assertion made about a patient, commonly used for individual lab test results.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

The European Union's comprehensive data protection law governing the collection, processing, and storage of personal data, including health information.

HL7 (Health Level Seven International)

A global standards development organization dedicated to creating frameworks for the exchange, integration, and retrieval of electronic health information.

ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision)

A global standard for classifying diseases, health conditions, and causes of death, maintained by the World Health Organization.

Interoperability in Healthcare

The ability of different healthcare information systems to exchange, interpret, and use data meaningfully across organizational and geographic boundaries.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

A lightweight, human-readable data format widely used for exchanging structured data, including FHIR healthcare resources.

LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes)

A universal coding system for identifying laboratory tests, clinical observations, and other health measurements.

NLP (Natural Language Processing)

A field of artificial intelligence focused on enabling computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

Technology that converts images of text — such as scanned lab reports — into machine-readable digital text.

Plausibility Range

The extreme outer bounds of biologically possible values for a lab test, used to detect data entry errors and OCR extraction mistakes.

Reference Range

The range of values considered normal for a specific laboratory test, used to interpret whether a result is within expected limits.

REST (Representational State Transfer)

An architectural style for designing networked applications, widely used in healthcare APIs including FHIR.

SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine — Clinical Terms)

A comprehensive clinical terminology system used to represent clinical findings, procedures, and diagnoses in electronic health records.

UCUM (Unified Code for Units of Measure)

A code system for unambiguously representing units of measurement in electronic communications.