Description (*Please confirm or update this field for the new USCDI version*)
Body location from where a specimen was obtained.
Examples include but are not limited to right internal jugular, left arm, and right eye.
Applicable Vocabulary Standard(s)
Applicable Standards (*Please confirm or update this field for the new USCDI version*)
Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT®) U.S. Edition, March 2023 Release
Submitted By: Nedra Garrett
/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Data Element Information
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.
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)
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.
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.