DataElement

In the next-generation CDE vocabulary, “a categorical descriptor whose permissible values may be ordered or unordered. Semantic ordering is explicit and is distinct from display order.”¹ A DataElement is a node in the definition graph, not a field inside a finding definition, and it is shared: a FindingClass reaches it through an element binding, which may restrict the use to a subset of the element’s permissible values without changing the element or its other bindings.¹

Three companion rules shape how a DataElement is used. Selection cardinality states “the permitted number of values selected for a DataElement in a use, such as single or multiple selection,” explicitly distinct from value ordering and from whether a report mentions the element. Modality applicability separates a descriptor’s intrinsic modality limit from its binding-specific applicability. Categorization requires that a distinction be expressed either by a categorizing DataElement or by a taxonomy of named classes, not both for the same distinction in the same model.¹

This vocabulary is a working draft on the next-gen-2026 branch. It is not a settled integration model, and its own preamble says so.¹

Synonyms and near-synonyms

• CDE element is the current published counterpart, identified RDE####.
• Attribute is the OIFM counterpart, owned by one finding model instead of shared.
• Measurement is deliberately not a DataElement: it is a quantitative descriptor, defined as distinct.¹
• In IHE IDR the same slot is Observation.code, “the property,” with the chosen value in Observation.value.²

Identifier form

No published form. The working graph uses internal node identifiers, and an RDE2 URI base is under discussion for the successor coding system.

Where it is used

Next-generation vocabulary and IHE IDR alignment.

Conflicts

Committee minutes record an unresolved debate between “element,” “attribute,” and “data element” as the name for this concept, with OIFM using “attribute” and the next-generation glossary using DataElement.³ IHE IDR’s word “observation” also denotes roughly what this vocabulary calls a DataElement value, a collision the IDR extract flags explicitly.²

Footnotes

1. CDE vocabulary, next-generation working glossary ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. IHE IDR Phase II extract ↩ ↩²

3. SIIM meeting minutes extract ↩