Measurement
“A quantitative descriptor, distinct from a DataElement. Its measurement method is optional and is unspecified by default.”1 In the next-generation CDE vocabulary a Measurement is its own node type, so a length, a volume, or an angle is not modelled as a categorical element with numeric values.
OIDM’s current format expresses the same idea without a separate type. A numeric attribute is “an attribute of a radiology finding where the radiologist would choose a number from a range,” carrying minimum, maximum, and unit.2 The measurement method is not represented at all.
The authoring guidance treats a coherent group of related measurements as a valid finding in its own right, giving emphysema quantification and brain volume measurements as examples, where “the finding is the act of performing a structured quantitative assessment, and the attributes are the measurements within it.”
Synonyms and near-synonyms
- Numeric attribute is the OIFM realization.
- Float element is the RadElement realization, a CDE element with bounds and a step.
- DataElement is explicitly not this; the distinction is stated in the definition.
- Computed property is IHE IDR’s name for a measurement derived from others, such as a volume from diameters, linked by
derivedFrom.3
Identifier form
None of its own in either vocabulary. A numeric attribute carries an ordinary OIFMA_[A-Z]{3,4}_[0-9]{6} identifier.
Where it is used
Finding model format and Next-generation vocabulary.
Conflicts
The two models disagree on type. The next-generation vocabulary makes Measurement a first-class node distinct from DataElement; OIFM has no such distinction, only a type discriminator on the attribute. A document that says “measurement” must say which model it means.