Introduction
Overview
This specification describes a set of types suitable for use in scientific, clinical and related information
structures. In order for such types to exist, a set of primitive types is assumed, namely Integer,
Real, Boolean, Character, Octet, String, List<T>, Set<T>, and Array<T>. These have
standard definitions in the OMG object model used in UML, OCL, and are available in almost all
type systems. The exact assumptions are described in the openEHR Support Information Model. A
number of symbolic definitions (similar to constants in programming) are also described in the Support
IM.
The data types described here are named with the class prefix DV_, and inherit from the class
DATA_VALUE. They have two distinct uses in reference models. Firstly, they may be used as 'data
values' in reference model structures wherever the DATA_VALUE class appears, for example, in the
EHR Reference Model via the ELEMENT.value attribute. Additionally, specific subtypes of the data
types described here can also be used as attribute types in other classes in reference models, such as
date/times, coded terms and so on. The difference is that in the former case, only subtypes of
DATA_VALUE may be used, whilst in the latter case, other types may be used as well, from the
assumed set of basic types.
Package Structure
The package structure of the openEHR data types is illustrated below.
