Condition — Clinical problem or diagnosis

The problem, diagnosis or clinical concern that motivates or contextualises care. A cornerstone of the FHIR patient record.

Purpose

Condition represents a clinical concern relating to health with a level of granularity such that it can be asserted by a clinician and recorded in the chart. It covers:

• formal diagnoses (ICD-10, SNOMED CT);
• symptoms (chest pain, fatigue);
• chronic health problems (hypertension, diabetes);
• risk factors (current smoker);
• provisional or differential diagnoses under investigation.

Granularity distinguishes encounter-bound diagnoses (category=encounter-diagnosis) from the longitudinal patient problem list (category=problem-list-item). The distinction structures the record: an encounter can close its admission diagnosis (status becomes resolved) without removing the underlying chronic problem from the problem list.

Key fields

clinicalStatus vs verificationStatus

Classic confusion. clinicalStatus describes where the condition stands in time:

• active — currently present.
• recurrence — reappearance after resolution.
• relapse — relapse after remission.
• inactive — not currently active, no further qualification.
• remission — symptoms controlled without definitive cure (oncology).
• resolved — cured, no more symptoms.

verificationStatus describes diagnostic certainty:

• unconfirmed — not confirmed.
• provisional — provisional, awaiting confirmation.
• differential — differential among others.
• confirmed — confirmed.
• refuted — refuted.
• entered-in-error — data entry error.

JSON example

Angina pectoris I20.9 (ICD-10) / 194828000 (SNOMED CT) — confirmed admission diagnosis, severe, active.

{
  "resourceType": "Condition",
  "id": "example",
  "clinicalStatus": {
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/condition-clinical",
      "code": "active",
      "display": "Active"
    }]
  },
  "verificationStatus": {
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/condition-ver-status",
      "code": "confirmed",
      "display": "Confirmed"
    }]
  },
  "category": [{
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/condition-category",
      "code": "encounter-diagnosis",
      "display": "Encounter Diagnosis"
    }]
  }],
  "severity": {
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
      "code": "24484000",
      "display": "Severe"
    }]
  },
  "code": {
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
      "code": "194828000",
      "display": "Angina (disorder)"
    }, {
      "system": "http://hl7.org/fhir/sid/icd-10",
      "code": "I20.9",
      "display": "Angina pectoris, unspecified"
    }],
    "text": "Angina pectoris"
  },
  "bodySite": [{
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
      "code": "80891009",
      "display": "Heart structure"
    }]
  }],
  "subject": { "reference": "Patient/example" },
  "encounter": { "reference": "Encounter/example" },
  "onsetDateTime": "2026-05-14T08:00:00+01:00",
  "recordedDate": "2026-05-14T10:30:00+01:00",
  "recorder": { "reference": "Practitioner/example" },
  "asserter": { "reference": "Practitioner/example" }
}

• code with two codings — SNOMED CT and ICD-10 — to ease interoperability.
• category = encounter-diagnosis.
• severity = Severe (SNOMED 24484000).
• bodySite = Heart structure (SNOMED 80891009).

REST API

• GET /Condition/example — direct fetch.
• GET /Condition?patient=example — all conditions for a patient.
• GET /Condition?patient=example&clinical-status=active&category=problem-list-item — active problem list.
• GET /Condition?patient=example&code=http://snomed.info/sct|73211009 — diabetes (SNOMED).
• GET /Condition?encounter=example — conditions tied to an encounter.

Profiles

Common pitfalls

• Invariant con-3: if clinicalStatus=resolved, remission or inactive, abatement[x] must be present. Otherwise validation fails.
• Invariant con-4: abatement[x] cannot coexist with clinicalStatus=active.
• verificationStatus=entered-in-error without clinicalStatus: in R5, clinicalStatus MUST NOT be present if the condition is entered-in-error. For other statuses, the opposite (invariant con-5).
• Inconsistent dual coding: SNOMED 73211009 = Diabetes mellitus, but ICD-10 E10 = Type 1 specifically. Align concepts or flag the mismatch in text.
• Problem list vs encounter diagnosis confused: missing category makes it impossible to distinguish longitudinal record from point-in-time diagnosis. Always categorise.
• Onset string vs dateTime: using a string ("child", "teenage years") instead of onsetAge breaks onset-date=ge2020-01-01 queries.

Related resources

• Patient — subject.
• Encounter — context if encounter-diagnosis.
• Observation — referenced by evidence.
• DiagnosticReport — referenced by evidence.
• Procedure, MedicationRequest, CarePlan — can point to Condition via reasonReference.
• AllergyIntolerance — distinct from Condition: allergies have their own resource.
• HL7 v2 equivalent — segment DG1 and sometimes IAM (Patient Adverse Reaction) for allergies.