ConMan (Connectathon Manager) has a number of tools to help validate Information Models that are created through the clinFHIR Logical Modeler tool. These models are intended to represent the information to be captured to support a given scenario using FHIR infrastructure (such as the dataTypes), but do not conform to one of the core resources in FHIR.
In this page, we’ll assume that ConMan has already been set up for a user – ie an Event, Track and scenario has been created. We’ll use the New Zealand Adverse Reactions project model.
First, start the ConMan tool with the following url: http://conman.fhir.org/connectathon.html?event=nzar
Assuming that this is the first time you’v used the tool, then you’ll get a login box as shown below. Click the ‘Register new person’ link to enter your name. After doing this once, the name will be remembered on this browser – if you use a different browser, simply enter your name in the login box (it autocompletes from the list of known users for this event.
After logging in, you’ll get a display showing the tracks that have been defined for this event – click a track to see the details of that track and the scenarios that have been defined as shown in the following screen shot:
Note that the 3rd tab from the left is titled ‘Logical Model Review’. Select it, then select a scenario from the dropdown list to the upper left. You’ll see a description of that scenario on the left side and an empty form on the right as shown here:
The structure of the form is derived automatically from the Logical Model. If the element in the model is a ‘parent’ element (ie has child elements – like PatientDetails) then there will be a > sign to the left of the element name. Clicking that will display the children, allowing data to be entered against them.
The columns that are displayed are:
- The element Name. If the element can appear more than once in the model, then there is a + symbol to the right that will make a copy of the element (and its children). If the element is red, then it is a required element
- The Cardinality of the element – how often it can appear in the model
- The dataType of the model. Generally there is only a single datatype per element (this is a limitation of the designer, not FHIR) but if there is more than one, then they will be listed as a radio button group. For all elements other than BackBoneElement (which are the parents) there will be an edit icon to the right (like a little blue box) that when clicked shows the data entry form for that datatype. More on this later.
- Next is the current value of the field (or at least a human readable version). Depending on how the track has been configured, it can be possible to just type into that field. Alternatively, it will be automatically filled in when you use the edit link described above.
- The last element is a text box that you can use to enter any comments for this field. This allows you to record any issues you have with an element (such as a recommended change to multiplicity). These will show in the Summary page (described below). There’s an edit field above the form to record comments about the model as a whole.
At the top right of the form are a number of links:
- Hide/Show Notes will hide or show the notes column. This will give more area for entering data.
- Hide without data will show only those elements that have data in them. This is really useful to get a condensed view of the form when you think you’ve entered all the required data
- Collapse will re-render the form as it is when first displayed – showing only the top most elements.
The edit link will show a data entry form that is specific to the dataType. Here’s the one for HumanName for example:
Most of these forms will be self explanatory, but the CodeableConcept is worth a closer look. Here’s the one for reaction description:
Provided that the element is properly bound to a ValueSet, the text box at the upper left allows you to enter search text that will retrieve all matching concepts from the ValueSet. Here’s an example:
Selecting one of these will look like this:
Below the selected concept will be any parent elements (to the left) or child elements (to the right). You can select any of them to alter the search. Clicking the Save button to the upper right will add this value to the model.
You don’t need to save the form as this will happen automatically (a green ‘updated’ label will briefly appear to the upper right).
Here’s an example of a completed form (with the ‘hide without data’ option selected)
