CDE element
One property inside a published CDE set: the unit that carries a question and its permissible answers. An element definition names the property, declares its value type, and lists the values where the type is categorical. The schema distinguishes a value_set from integer_values and float_values, the latter carrying bounds and a step.1
In a CDE-labeled FHIR Observation, elements are what the components carry: the parent Observation’s code is the set, each component’s code is an element, and the component value is the chosen value code, for example element RDE1717 with value RDE1717.1.2 The dot-suffixed value code convention is the same one OIFM uses for attribute values.
Synonyms and near-synonyms
- Attribute is the OIFM counterpart, scoped to one finding model rather than shared.
- Data element is the next-generation vocabulary’s node type, explicitly shared across definitions and reached through an element binding.3
- Element unqualified usually means this, but in the RelaxNG schema it also means an XML element.
- Measurement is the next-generation term for the quantitative case, which RadElement handles as a float element.
Identifier form
RDE followed by digits, for example RDE1717. Value codes append a dot and an index, for example RDE1717.1.2
Where it is used
CDEs and RadElement and FHIR mapping.
Conflicts
The published element schema and the RadElement API differ: parent_set, images, biological_sex, age_range, modality, and references appear in the schema without API counterparts, while url and question appear in the API without schema counterparts.1 Reconciling the two is a long-standing open issue in the staging repository.