Preferred Name

observation

Synonyms
Definitions

**Description:**An act that is intended to result in new information about a subject. The main difference between Observations and other Acts is that Observations have a value attribute. The<b>code</b>attribute of Observation and the<b>value</b>attribute of Observation must be considered in combination to determine the semantics of the observation.<b>Discussion:</b><p>Structurally, many observations are name-value-pairs, where the Observation.code (inherited from Act) is the name and the Observation.value is the value of the property. Such a construct is also known as a variable (a named feature that can assume a value) hence, the Observation class is always used to hold generic name-value-pairs or variables, even though the variable valuation may not be the result of an elaborate observation method. It may be a simple answer to a question or it may be an assertion or setting of a parameter.</p><p>As with all Act statements, Observation statements describe what was done, and in the case of Observations, this includes a description of what was actually observed (results or answers); and those results or answers are part of the observation and not split off into other objects.</p><p>The method of action is asserted by the Observation classCode or its subclasses at the least granular level, by the Observation.code attribute value at the medium level of granularity, and by the attribute value of observation.methodCode when a finer level of granularity is required. The method in whole or in part may also appear in the attribute value of Observation.value when using coded data types to express the value of the attribute. Relevant aspects of methodology may also be restated in value when the results themselves imply or state a methodology.</p><p>An observation may consist of component observations each having their own Observation.code and Observation.value. In this case, the composite observation may not have an Observation.value for itself. For instance, a white blood cell count consists of the sub-observations for the counts of the various granulocytes, lymphocytes and other normal or abnormal blood cells (e.g., blasts). The overall white blood cell count Observation itself may therefore not have a value by itself (even though it could have one, e.g., the sum total of white blood cells). Thus, as long as an Act is essentially an Act of recognizing and noting information about a subject, it is an Observation, regardless of whether it has a simple value by itself or whether it has sub-observations.</p><p>Even though observations are professional acts (see Act) and as such are intentional actions, this does not require that every possible outcome of an observation be pondered in advance of it being actually made. For instance, differential white blood cell counts (WBC) rarely show blasts, but if they do, this is part of the WBC observation even though blasts might not be predefined in the structure of a normal WBC.</p><p>Clinical documents commonly have Subjective and Objective findings, both of which are kinds of Observations. In addition, clinical documents commonly contain Assessments, which are also kinds of Observations. Thus, the establishment of a diagnosis is an Observation.</p><b>Examples:</b><p>* Recording the results of a Family History Assessment * Laboratory test and associated result * Physical exam test and associated result * Device temperature * Soil lead level</p>

ID

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C1554188

Class code classified by

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C1697924

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C1699643

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C3243311

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C3243318

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C3243737

cui

C1554188

definition

**Description:**An act that is intended to result in new information about a subject. The main difference between Observations and other Acts is that Observations have a value attribute. Thecodeattribute of Observation and thevalueattribute of Observation must be considered in combination to determine the semantics of the observation.Discussion:

Structurally, many observations are name-value-pairs, where the Observation.code (inherited from Act) is the name and the Observation.value is the value of the property. Such a construct is also known as a variable (a named feature that can assume a value) hence, the Observation class is always used to hold generic name-value-pairs or variables, even though the variable valuation may not be the result of an elaborate observation method. It may be a simple answer to a question or it may be an assertion or setting of a parameter.

As with all Act statements, Observation statements describe what was done, and in the case of Observations, this includes a description of what was actually observed (results or answers); and those results or answers are part of the observation and not split off into other objects.

The method of action is asserted by the Observation classCode or its subclasses at the least granular level, by the Observation.code attribute value at the medium level of granularity, and by the attribute value of observation.methodCode when a finer level of granularity is required. The method in whole or in part may also appear in the attribute value of Observation.value when using coded data types to express the value of the attribute. Relevant aspects of methodology may also be restated in value when the results themselves imply or state a methodology.

An observation may consist of component observations each having their own Observation.code and Observation.value. In this case, the composite observation may not have an Observation.value for itself. For instance, a white blood cell count consists of the sub-observations for the counts of the various granulocytes, lymphocytes and other normal or abnormal blood cells (e.g., blasts). The overall white blood cell count Observation itself may therefore not have a value by itself (even though it could have one, e.g., the sum total of white blood cells). Thus, as long as an Act is essentially an Act of recognizing and noting information about a subject, it is an Observation, regardless of whether it has a simple value by itself or whether it has sub-observations.

Even though observations are professional acts (see Act) and as such are intentional actions, this does not require that every possible outcome of an observation be pondered in advance of it being actually made. For instance, differential white blood cell counts (WBC) rarely show blasts, but if they do, this is part of the WBC observation even though blasts might not be predefined in the structure of a normal WBC.

Clinical documents commonly have Subjective and Objective findings, both of which are kinds of Observations. In addition, clinical documents commonly contain Assessments, which are also kinds of Observations. Thus, the establishment of a diagnosis is an Observation.

Examples:

* Recording the results of a Family History Assessment * Laboratory test and associated result * Physical exam test and associated result * Device temperature * Soil lead level

HL7 code status

active

HL7 internal Id

11529

HL7PL

true

notation

C1554188

prefLabel

observation

tui

T078

subClassOf

http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/HL7/C1551336

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http://purl.allotrope.org/ontologies/result#AFR_0000955 AFO LOOM
http://www.co-ode.org/ontologies/galen#Observation GALEN LOOM
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/MESH_D019370 BERO LOOM
http://www.purl.org/infection_trans#Observation INFECTION_TRANS LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/zhenyuzhang/ontologies/2021/DREAMDNPTO#Observation DREAMDNPTO LOOM
http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/MESH/D019370 MESH LOOM
http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/MESH/D019370 NLN LOOM
http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/Observation BCI-O LOOM
http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/Observation FOO LOOM
http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/Observation SSN LOOM
https://w3id.org/linkml-common/Observation COMET LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/schra/ontologies/2017/4/PRIME_NewOntology#Observation PSO LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/ontologies/2018/1/ProstateCancer.owl#Observation PCAO LOOM
http://purl.allotrope.org/ontologies/result#AFR_0000955 AFO LOOM
https://www.fns-cloud.eu/CLAS/FNS_H_0000000840 FNS-H LOOM
http://psink.de/scio/Observation SCIO LOOM
http://ncicb.nci.nih.gov/xml/owl/EVS/Thesaurus.owl#C25598 NCIT LOOM
http://www.bioontology.org/pma.owl#PMA_1486 PMA LOOM
https://w3id.org/ahso#AHSO_0000_000001 AHSO LOOM
http://w3id.org/ontopbm#OntoPBM_00462 ONTOPBM LOOM
http://ncicb.nci.nih.gov/xml/owl/EVS/Thesaurus.owl#Observation SYN LOOM
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/TRAK_0001001 TRAK LOOM
http://phenomebrowser.net/ontologies/mesh/mesh.owl#E05.581.249 RH-MESH LOOM
http://www.cvrgrid.org/ontologies/Electrophysiology#Observation EP LOOM
http://phenomebrowser.net/ontologies/mesh/mesh.owl#D019370 RH-MESH LOOM
http://www.stanford.edu/~coulet/phare.owl#Phenotype PHARE LOOM
http://mged.sourceforge.net/ontologies/MGEDOntology.owl#Observation CSEO LOOM
http://mged.sourceforge.net/ontologies/MGEDOntology.owl#Observation MO LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/ontologies/2018/1/ProstateCancer.owl#Observation_for_PSA-only_recurrences PCAO LOOM
http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/MSTDE-FRE/MT250010 MSTDE-FRE LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/rjyy/ontologies/2015/5/ESSO#Observation ESSO LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/rjyy/ontologies/2015/5/ESSO#Observation MEPO LOOM
http://hadatac.org/ont/hasco/Observation HHEARP LOOM
http://hadatac.org/ont/hasco/Observation CHEAR LOOM
http://hadatac.org/ont/hasco/Observation SCO LOOM
http://hadatac.org/ont/hasco/Observation HHEAR LOOM
http://hadatac.org/ont/hasco/Observation HASCO LOOM
http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D019370 MDM LOOM
http://rdf.geospecies.org/ont/geospecies#Observation GEOSPECIES LOOM
http://sweetontology.net/humanResearch/Observation SWEET LOOM
http://www.owl-ontologies.com/Ontology1358660052.owl#Observation PEDTERM LOOM
https://w3id.org/biolink/vocab/KnowledgeLevelEnum#observation BIOLINK LOOM
http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/PMR.owl#Observation PMR LOOM
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/WC_observation WC LOOM
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OMIT_0019433 OMIT LOOM
http://ecoinformatics.org/oboe/oboe.1.0/oboe-core.owl#Observation OBOE-SBC LOOM
https://www.fns-cloud.eu/interventions/FNS_H_0000001010 FNS-H LOOM
http://purl.jp/bio/4/id/200906007201146756 IOBC LOOM
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/ssnx/ssn#Observation BCI-O LOOM
http://ecoinformatics.org/oboe/oboe.1.2/oboe-core.owl#Observation OBOE LOOM
http://ecoinformatics.org/oboe/oboe.1.2/oboe-core.owl#Observation SALMON LOOM
http://www.semanticweb.org/ontologies/2012/0/Ontology1325521724189.owl#Observation CTO-NDD LOOM