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"Diagnostic Study, Recommended"

Performance/Reporting Period
2021
QDM Datatype (QDM Version 5.5 Guidance Update):

Data elements that meet criteria using this datatype should document a recommendation for a request by a clinician or appropriately licensed care provider to an appropriate provider or organization to perform the diagnostic study indicated by the QDM category and its corresponding value set.

Timing: The time the recommendation is authored (i.e., provided to the patient).

Notes: negation rationale indicates a one-time documentation of a reason an activity is not performed. Negation of QDM datatype-related actions for a reason always use the author dateTime attribute to reference timing and must not use relevantPeriod.

Recommendations address the time that the recommendation occurs, a single point in time. Vendors have expressed concerns that recommendations are not necessarily captured or managed in a standard manner as part of structured data capture in clinical workflow; many are documented as part of assessments in narrative text. Measure developers should address feasibility of the clinical workflow to capture recommendations when evaluating measures.

QDM Datatype and Definition

Diagnostic Study

Diagnostic Study represents any kind of medical test performed as a specific test or series of steps to aid in diagnosing or detecting disease (e.g., to establish a diagnosis, measure the progress or recovery from disease, confirm that a person is free from disease). The QDM defines diagnostic studies as those that are not performed in organizations that perform testing on samples of human blood, tissue, or other substance from the body. Diagnostic studies may make use of digital images and textual reports. Such studies include, but are not limited to, imaging studies, cardiology studies (electrocardiogram, treadmill stress testing), pulmonary function testing, and vascular laboratory testing.
QDM Attributes

authorDateTime

The time the data element was entered into the clinical software. Note, some datatypes include both relevant dateTime and author dateTime attributes. When both are present, author dateTime is included to accommodate negation rationale.

The author dateTime addresses when an activity is documented. Documentation can occur at the beginning, during, at the end, or subsequent to the end of the activity. The author dateTime should be used only if the relevantPeriod cannot be obtained or to represent the time negation rationale is documented.

Note: negation rationale indicates a one-time documentation of a reason an activity is not performed. Negation of QDM datatype related actions for a reason always use the author dateTime attribute to reference timing and must not use relevantPeriod.

negationRationale