Searching FHIR resources with POST - AWS HealthLake
POST search examples

Searching FHIR resources with POST

You can use the FHIR search interaction with POST requests to search a HealthLake data store. When using POST, HealthLake supports search parameters in either the URL or in a request body, but you cannot use both in a single request.

Important

For searches that involve personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI), security best practices call for using POST requests, as PII and PHI is added as part of the request body and is encrypted in transit.

The following procedure is followed by examples using FHIR R4 search interaction with POST to search a HealthLake data store. The examples show how to specify search parameters in the JSON request body.

To search a HealthLake data store with POST

  1. Collect HealthLake region and datastoreId values. For more information, see Getting data store properties.

  2. Determine the type of FHIR resource to search for and collect the associated id value. For more information, see Resource types.

  3. Construct a URL for the request using the collected values for HealthLake region and datastoreId. Also include the FHIR Resource type and _search interaction. To view the entire URL path in the following example, scroll over the Copy button.

    POST https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/Resource/_search

  4. Construct a JSON body for the request, specifying the FHIR data to search for. For the purpose of this procedure, you will search Observation resources to discover patients who have never smoked. To specify the medical code status Never smoker, set value-concept=266919005 in the JSON request body. Save the file as search-observation.json.

    value-concept=266919005

  5. Send the request. The FHIR search interaction uses the GET request with either AWS Signature Version 4 or SMART on FHIR authorization.

    Note

    When making a POST request with search parameters in the request body, use Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded as part of the header.

    The following curl example makes a POST-based search request on the Observation resource type. The request uses the value-concept search parameter to look for medical code 266919005 which indicates value Never smoker. To view the entire example, scroll over the Copy button.

    curl

    SigV4 authorization

    curl --request POST \
  'https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/Observation/_search \						
  --aws-sigv4 'aws:amz:region:healthlake' \
  --user "$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID:$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY" \
  --header "x-amz-security-token:$AWS_SESSION_TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"							
  --header "Accept: application/json"
  --data @search-observation.json

Examples: search with POST

The following tabs provide examples for searching on specific FHIR resource types with POST. The examples show how to specify a request in the URLs.

Note

The HealthLake Console supports only SigV4 authorization. SMART on FHIR authorization is supported through AWS CLI and AWS SDKs.

HealthLake supports a subset of FHIR R4 search parameters. For more information, see Search parameters.

Patient (age)

Although age is not a defined resource type in FHIR, it is captured as an element in the Patient resource type. Use the following example to make a POST-based search request on the Patient resource type. The following search example uses the eq search comparator to search for individuals born in 1997.

POST https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/Patient/_search

To specify the year 1997 in the search, add the following element to the request body.

birthdate=eq1997
Condition

Using the following to make a POST request on the Condition resource type. This search finds locations in your HealthLake DynamoDB Streams that contain the medical code 72892002.

You have to specify a request URL and a request body. Here is an example request URL.

POST https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/Condition/_search

To specify the medical code you want to search, you add the following JSON element to the request body.

code=72892002
DocumentReference

To see the results of HealthLake's integrated natural language processing (NLP) when making a POST request on the DocumentReference resource type, format a request as follows.

POST https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/DocumentReference/_search

To specify the DocumentReference search parameters to reference, see Search parameter types. The following query string uses multiple search parameters to search on Amazon Comprehend Medical API operations used to generate the integrated NLP results.

_lastUpdated=le2021-12-19&infer-icd10cm-entity-text-concept-score;=streptococcal|0.6&infer-rxnorm-entity-text-concept-score=Amoxicillin|0.8
Location

Use the following example to make a POST request on the Location resource type. The search finds locations in your HealthLake data store that contain the city name Boston as part of the address.

You must specify a request URL and a request body. Here is an example request URL.

POST https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/Location/_search

To specify Boston in the search, add the following element to the request body:

address=Boston
Observation

Use the following example to make a POST-based search request on the Observation resource type. The search uses the value-concept search parameter to look for medical code, 266919005 that indicates Never smoker.

POST https://healthlake.region.amazonaws.com/datastore/datastoreId/r4/Observation/_search

To specify the status, Never smoker , set value-concept=266919005 in the body of the JSON.

value-concept=266919005