Data Element
Submitted By: Nedra Garrett / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Data Element Information
Data Element Description Body site from which the specimen was obtained (e.g., right internal jugular, left arm, buttock, right eye)
Use Case Description(s)
Use Case Description Disease reporting to public health relies on data from the EHR for identification of reportable events and to provide critical information used in confirming a diagnosis, understanding severity and classifying a case of disease that requires public health intervention for prevention, treatment, control, and outbreak identification and response. The specimen collection date is of particular importance for public health in understanding when laboratory confirmable evidence of a disease process was present in the patient. Specimen type and specimen site provides information useful in interpreting laboratory findings to determine severity and transmissibility.
Estimate the breadth of applicability of the use case(s) for this data element Over 3000 public health agencies in the US would use these data elements for disease surveillance and control activities.
Link to use case project page https://www.cdc.gov/elr/index.html
Healthcare Aims
  • Improving the health of populations
Maturity of Use and Technical Specifications for Data Element
Applicable Standard(s) LOINC
https://phinvads.cdc.gov/vads/SearchVocab.action
Additional Specifications N/A
Current Use Extensively used in production environments
Supporting Artifacts These are standard elements in HL7 laboratory messaging
https://www.cdc.gov/elr/index.html
Extent of exchange 5 or more. This data element has been tested at scale between multiple different production environments to support the majority of anticipated stakeholders.
Supporting Artifacts These data elements are standard components of HL7 electronic test order and reporting (ETOR) messages between clinical setting and clinical laboratorories and of HL7 electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) messages sent from clinical laboratories to public health.
https://www.cdc.gov/elr/index.html
Potential Challenges
Restrictions on Standardization (e.g. proprietary code) None
Restrictions on Use (e.g. licensing, user fees) None
Privacy and Security Concerns None
Estimate of Overall Burden N/A
Other Implementation Challenges N/A

Comment

Submitted by Riki Merrick APHL on

APHL comment to add into USCDIV2

This data element is critical in supporting specimentype information, when more generic types are submitted - for example a joint fuild sample or a tissue sample - rather than supporting a lot of pre-coordinated (and still potentially not detailed enough specimen types) use of source site allows for a clear identification of the sample's location - critical for treating infections and cancer for example. It has been included in V2 messages for a long time (OBR-15.4) and is an RE element in ELR R1.

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