GP Connect API 1.2.3 released on 23rd April 2019

Introduction

The GP Connect API 1.2.3 release contains a number of changes and clarifications to all capabilities, including changes for provider and consumer systems.

Please note: Some changes affect more than one capability - please see the Affects label for a full list of changed capabilities.

1.2.3 changes

Core

Don’t use Bundle.entry.fullUrl

Tickets:  #605, #633

Affects:  Foundations, Appointment Management, Access Record Structured

Description:

  • After discussion with suppliers, it has been decided that Bundle.entry.fullUrl should not be populated for Foundations and Appointments, and must not be populated for Access Record Structured. The reasoning behind this is as follows:
    • Lack of use case for GP Connect consumers
    • Inconsistency in ability to populate - requires an absolute URL and therefore not able to populate for resources that don’t have read endpoint (e.g. AllergyIntolerance, MedicationStatement, Slot, Schedule)
  • Consumers must not use this element.

Pages changed:

Minimise likelihood of rejected tokens due to clock skew

Tickets:  #640

Affects:  Core

Description:

  • When determining validity of the JWT token, clock skew between consumer and provider may cause a token to be rejected.

  • The following addition has been made:

    • Providers and consumers must synchronise their system clocks with NTP time servers

  • The following related clause has been added as was not previously explicitly stated:

    • Providers must reject tokens that have expired (validate the exp element)

  • Please note: iat should not be validated by providers

Pages changed:

Clarify ASID requirements and topologies for “aggregators”

Tickets:  #616

Affects:  Core

Description:

  • Clarify that GP Connect consumer systems must have a unique ASID per organisation using the consumer system
  • Where GP Connect consumer applications are hosted or provisioned by another organisation, the ASID sent in the Ssp-From header, and the requesting_organization resource sent in the JWT must reflect the organisation from where the request originated, rather than the hosting organisation

Pages changed:

SDS query changes to support multiple consumers at a site

Tickets:  #638

Affects:  Core

Description:

  • Update SDS queries used by a consumer to locate a provider’s FHIR service root URL

    • Instead of querying the AS record first, query the MHS record first

    • Only provider systems hold GP Connect interaction IDs on their MHS record, this enables the new queries to return the providers endpoint deterministically

  • Adding information where a consumer system wants to lookup its own ASID

  • Please see the new queries on Overview and querying SDS for more information

Pages changed:

Consumer shall not amend the Provider service root URL as retrieved from SDS

Tickets:  #652

Affects:  Core

Description:

  • When a consumer systems construct a full URL to be sent to the SSP, they must not amend any part of the provider service root URL, except for prefixing with the SSP URL, and suffixing with the FHIR request path

  • The following examples will cause the SSP to reject the request:

    • Changing the provider’s hostname to an IP address
    • Adding an explicit :443 port declaration where none exists in SDS

Pages changed:

Improve clarity of JWT population page for new consumers (cosmetic)

Tickets:  #634

Affects:  Core

Description:

  • Clarifications to JWT population guidance for consumers
  • Improved formatting and layout

Pages changed:

Change spec name of “GP Connect” to “GP Connect API” (cosmetic)

Tickets:  #616

Affects:  Core

Description:

  • Specification name has changed from GP Connect to GP Connect API to maintain consistency with release of GP Connect Messaging specification

Pages changed:

Foundations

Change version number in CapabilityStatement to 1.2.3

Tickets:  #637

Affects:  Foundations

Description:

Pages changed:

Some CareConnect-HumanLanguage-1 code system language descriptions do not match the ISO639-2 list

Tickets:  #643

Affects:  Foundations, Access Record Structured

Description:

  • The descriptions for some language codes in the CareConnect-HumanLanguage-1 code system have been updated to correctly match the in the ISO639-2 list

  • Language codes affected: bh, ii, ps, ro

FHIR profiles changed:

Appointment Management

Amending a cancelled appointment is no longer supported

Tickets:  #601

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • A cancelled appointment can no longer be amended

  • Please note: whilst this change is technically breaking against the previous specification, all providers and consumers engaged in building solutions for Appointments first of type were made aware this functionality was being removed.

Pages changed:

Organization resource in Search for free slots Bundle

Tickets:  #645

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

Pages changed:

  • Search for free slots
    • Add parameter to _include parameters list
    • Include parameter in API usage and examples
    • Update payload response body requirements to permit consumers to start sending the parameter
  • Known issues
    • Add consumer requirement to send _include:recurse=Location:managingOrganization parameter where they wish to receive related Organization resources
  • Get the FHIR® capability statement
    • Add Location:managingOrganization as a parameter to the /Slot resource endpoint

Search for free slots - Consumer display requirements

Tickets:  #606

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • Added requirements for consumers to display fields allowing a patient to determine, and attend, the most appropriate appointment for them

Pages changed:

Clarify date / time component use in appointments

Tickets:  #646

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • Clarify that Appointment, Schedule and Slot date/time elements (start, end, planningHorizon, created) to be populated in local time in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+hh:mm, using timezone offset +00:00 for UTC and +01:00 for BST

  • Clarify Search for free slots start and end parameters may be:

    • dates in the format yyyy-mm-dd,
    • or date and times in local time in the format yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss+hh:mm, using timezone offset +00:00 for UTC and +01:00 for BST

Pages changed:

Book appointment - description and comment field character limit handling clarification

Tickets:  #625

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • Clarify and tidy requirements around provider handling of description and comment fields

  • Key points:

    • Providers shall support storing the limits of 100 characters (description field) and 500 characters (comment field)
    • Providers shall not truncate description or comment fields when storing in their system
    • Providers shall return an error where consumers send more data than can be stored by the provider

Pages changed:

Book appointment - Clarify error handling for Appointment reason & speciality elements

Tickets:  #743

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • Bring error handling for Appointment reason & speciality elements in line with request payload requirements

Pages changed:

Clarify meaning of organisation groups in Appointments Availability Management (cosmetic)

Tickets:  #608

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • Use term ‘list of organisations’ in place of ‘organisation groups’ as it is clearer, and does not imply an organisation hierarchy

  • Add clarification that ODS organisation codes are used to identify individual or lists of organisations

Pages changed:

Consumer sent patient temporary contact details when booking an appointment (cosmetic)

Tickets:  #592

Affects:  Appointment Management

Description:

  • Move the paragraph relating to the workaround for sending temporary contact details in the description element of the Appointment resource from the Book Appointment page to the Known issues page
  • Make consumers aware that sending temporary contact details in this field will not result in them being stored in the usual place in the patient’s demographic record

Pages changed:

Access Record Structured

Change text for patient transfers in List warning code

Tickets:  #650

Affects  Access Record Structured

Description:

  • The text for the warning code for data in transit has been updated. “Patient record transfer from previous GP practice not yet complete; any information recorded before dd-Mmm-yyyy has been excluded.” has been changed to “Patient record transfer from previous GP practice not yet complete; information recorded before dd-Mmm-yyyy may be missing.”

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