dangerCode"Contains any known or suspected specimen hazards, e.g., exceptionally infectious agent or blood from a hepatitis patient." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-16. Possible values include (from HL7 Table 489): Biological; Corrosive; Escape Risk; Aggressive; MaterialDangerInflammable; Explosive; MaterialDangerInfectious; Biohazard; Injury Hazard; Poison; Radioactive.
dateTimeReceivedThe date and time when the Specimen was received by the laboratory for processing or testing. Note that this property could potentially be derived from the collection of Specimen Handling records."Time when specimen was received for processing or testing." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.receivedTime
definedPatientEventThe specific patient-related event to which a specimen collection or collections (and subsequently, any tests performed on that specimen) are related or affected by time, sequence, directive, intent, etc. Examples might include drug administration (peak and trough), beginning of fasting (lipids, FBS), glucose challenge (tolerances) or meal (postprandial), admission (pre- or post-admission studies), scheduled surgery/transfusion (compatibility testing), onset of symptoms (acute and convalescent), Last Menstrual Period (pregnancy test, Pap smear), lumbar puncture (CSF tubes 1, 2, and 3), treatment completion (test of cure, post-transfusion H&H), use/ingestion (BAT, toxicology), start of 24-hour urine pooling (creatinine clearance), etc.
duration"The span of time over which the collection of a specimen occurred." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.collection.duration
handlingCode"Describes how the specimen and/or container need to be handled from the time of collection through the initiation of testing." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-15. Possible values include (from HL7 Table 376): Body temperature; Ambient temperature; Critical ambient temperature; Refrigerated temperature; Critical refrigerated temperature; Frozen temperature; Critical frozen temperature; Deep frozen; Ultra frozen; Liquid nitrogen; Protect from light; Protect from air; Dry; No shock; Do not shake; Upright; Metal Free.
identifierA designation that uniquely identifies the specimen."Unique identifier for the specimen as referenced by the Placer application, the Filler application, or both." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-2"Contains other identifier(s) for the specimen ... in addition to those identified in [SPM-2, Specimen ID]. In may cases other applications involved in the collection, transportation or testing of the specimen will assign additional specimen identifiers." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-31."Id for specimen." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.identifier
note"A text field that allows additional information specifically about the specimen" - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-14."To communicate any details or issues about the specimen or during the specimen collection. (for example: broken vial, sent with patient, frozen)." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.note
parentThis optional, derived property points to another Specimen from which this Specimen was taken or derived. Note that this property is marked as derived because the FHIM handles this relationship through an explicit Specimen Processing Event class which details the event of aliquoting or isolate extraction and which points to the parent or source specimen as well as the resulting specimens. Thus this property is meant to be used for compatibility with FHIR or for ease of processing, but can be omitted in favor of using the Specimen Processing Event mechanism."Reference to the parent (source) specimen which is used when the specimen was either derived from or a component of another specimen." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.parent
specimenCollectionEventPointer to the event during which the Specimen was collected."Details concerning the specimen collection." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.collection
specimenContainerIdentifies the object in which the specimen is contained, such as the capacity, etc. Some containers are manufactured such that they contain a pre-defined substance that may act to preserve, maintain or enhance the particular nature or component of the specimen. For example, a "blue top tube" typically contains an anticoagulant such as citrate. It is therefore important to know what kind of container the sample is in, as the condition of the sample may be affected."The container holding the specimen. The recursive nature of containers; i.e. blood in tube in tray in rack is not addressed here." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.container
specimenExpirationDateTime"The date and time the specimen can no longer be used for the purpose implied by the order...." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-19.
specimenOriginDomain from which the specimen comes (e.g., human, animal, environmental). Added for Public Health Reporting Initiative 10/12/12.
specimenProcessingEventPointer to actions performed on a specimen in order to prepare it for future testing."Details concerning processing and processing steps for the specimen." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.processing
specimenRoleProvides an indication of how this sample relates to other aspects of the overall workflow and/or to other specimens gathered or processed during the workflow. This property is populated from HL7 V2 user-defined Table 0369, which contains a mish-mash of concepts including "group" and "pool" which relate to aliquotting, "calibarator", "verifying calibrator", "operator testing", etc. which relate to laboratory quality assurance, etc."Indicates the role of the sample." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-11. Possible values include (from HL7 Table 369):Blind Sample;Calibrator, used for initial setting of calibration;Electronic QC, used with manufactured reference providing signals that simulate QC results;Specimen used for testing proficiency of the organization performing the testing (Filler);Group (where a specimen consists of multiple individual elements that are not individually identified);Pool (aliquots of individual specimens combined to form a single specimen representing all of the components.);Specimen used for testing Operator Proficiency;Patient (default if blank component value);Control specimen;Replicate (of patient sample as a control);Verifying Calibrator, used for periodic calibration checks.
specimenType"Describes the precise nature of the entity that will be the source material for the observation. Any physical entity that may have observations made about it may qualify as a specimen. The entry in this attribute describes the specific entity as precisely as possible, whether that is a complex organism (e.g., an ostrich) or a specific cellular mass (e.g., a specific muscle biopsy)." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-4. Note that HL7 identifies a Code Table (Table 487) for this property, which currently contains 271 suggested values."The kind of material that forms the specimen." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.type. Note that FHIR also uses table 487.
specimenTypeModifier"Contains modifying or qualifying description(s) about the specimen type. The use of this attribute is to modify, qualify or further specify, the entity described by [SpecimenType]. This is particularly useful when the code set used in [SpecimenType] does not provide the precision required to fully describe the specimen. For example, if the specimen was precisely described as capillary venous blood but the code set employed only provided venous blood, this attribute could be employed to add the modifier capillary." - HL7 Version 2.8, SPM-5. Note that HL7 identifies a Code Table (Table 541) for this property, but does not provide any suggested values.
statusThis optional property specifies whether the Specimen is available and in sufficient condition to proceed with the requested lab test, or not."The availability of the specimen." - HL7 FHIR, Specimen.status.