The FHIR R4 Provenance resource tracks the origin, authorship, and transmission of clinical data. It identifies the agents, systems, and source documents involved in creating or importing a given resource. Health Gorilla automatically generates Provenance records for key clinical data to support data lineage, audit trails, and trustworthiness assessments.
Use Cases
- Audit who created or imported a clinical record
- Identify the source system or provider organization that authored a result
- Investigate how a resource was derived or transmitted into the system
Base URLs
- Production: https://api.healthgorilla.com/fhir/R4/Provenance
- Sandbox: https://sandbox.healthgorilla.com/fhir/R4/Provenance
Authentication
All requests require OAuth 2.0 authentication using a Bearer Token. Unauthorized requests return 401 Unauthorized responses.
Required Scopes
provenance.readfor GET
For more information, go to: OAuth 2.0 Authentication.
Supported Methods
Provenance Methods
| Method | Operation | Description |
|---|---|---|
GET | Read Provenance | Retrieves a specific Provenance record by its FHIR ID. |
GET | Search Provenance | Searches for Provenance records referencing a target resource or patient. |
Note:
POST,PUT, andDELETEare not supported. Provenance is system-managed.
Frequently Used Search Parameters
| Parameter | Description | FHIR Value Set / Example Values | FHIR Data Type | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
target | Filters by the resource the provenance refers to | Observation/{id}, DocumentReference/{id} | Reference | Yes (recommended) |
patient | Filters by the patient related to the target resource | Patient/{id} | Reference | No |
recorded | Filters by the timestamp the provenance was recorded | ge2023-01-01 | date | No |
agent | Filters by the actor responsible for the activity | Practitioner/{id}, Organization/{id} | Reference | No |
_id | Filters by the Provenance FHIR resource ID | Provenance/{id} | token | No |
Commonly Returned Resource Attributes
| Attribute | Description | Example Values | FHIR Data Type | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
id | Unique FHIR ID for the Provenance record | prov-123456 | id | Yes |
target | Resources the provenance applies to | Observation/{id}, DocumentReference/{id} | Reference[] | Yes |
recorded | Timestamp when the activity was recorded | 2024-01-05T14:22:01Z | instant | Yes |
agent | Actor(s) responsible for the activity | Practitioner, Organization, or system ID | Provenance.Agent[] | Yes |
agent.type | Type of participant in the event | performer | CodeableConcept | No |
agent.who | Reference to the agent (person or system) | Practitioner/{id} | Reference | Yes |
entity | Source data or resource used to construct the target | DocumentReference/{id}, Observation/{id} | Provenance.Entity[] | No |
entity.role | Role of the entity in the provenance event | source, derivation | code | No |
signature | Digital signature for validation (if present) | base64-encoded digital signature | Signature[] | No |
Linked Resource Types
Health Gorilla automatically creates Provenance records for the following resource types:
- AllergyIntolerance
- CarePlan
- Condition
- DeviceUseStatement
- DiagnosticReport
- Encounter
- FamilyMemberHistory
- Goal
- Immunization
- MedicationRequest
- MedicationDispense
- NutritionOrder
- Observation (vitals, functional, social history)
- Procedure
- DocumentReference
Webhooks
Provenance resources are not directly pushed via webhooks, but may be referenced in webhook-triggering payloads (e.g., DocumentReference, Observation, DiagnosticReport).
For more information, go to: Webhooks & Polling.
Error Handling
All Provenance operations follow standard Health Gorilla error handling, including use of FHIR OperationOutcome for structured error responses.
For more information, go to: Error Handling.
Additional Resources
{
"resourceType": "Provenance",
"id": "90a59b62d37d8a6c9ceb2770",
"target": [
{
"reference": "DiagnosticReport/91a59b62da5c326b2d6b20ea",
"display": "Imported Result"
},
{
"reference": "Condition/91a59b6235b75ea4acdebfe5",
"display": "Pseudoexfoliation glaucoma"
},
{
"reference": "Condition/91a59b629e79a64f30203728",
"display": "Ptosis of eyelid"
},
{
"reference": "Condition/91a59b628985b5911cfb3c30",
"display": "Excess skin of eyelid"
},
{
"reference": "Condition/91a59b62ccda8f307b804ac7",
"display": "Lesion of eyelid"
},
{
"reference": "Condition/91a59b62c88b7dc49e6d79ec",
"display": "Dry eyes"
},
{
"reference": "AllergyIntolerance/91a59b626cb6561a8b83b121",
"display": "NKDA, 10/27/2014"
},
{
"reference": "Observation/vs-91a59b6267683301d71ffe0d",
"display": "6/4/2022 6:33 PM, Body Height - 63 [in_i], Body Weight - 145 [lb_av], Body Mass Index - 25.7 kg/m2"
},
{
"reference": "Observation/vs-91a59b6275421542db628899",
"display": "6/4/2022 6:33 PM, Body Height - 63 [in_i], Body Weight - 145 [lb_av], Body Mass Index - 25.7 kg/m2"
},
{
"reference": "Observation/vs-91a59b624da2b9a895d05d86",
"display": "6/4/2022 6:33 PM, Body Height - 63 [in_i], Body Weight - 145 [lb_av], Body Mass Index - 25.7 kg/m2"
},
{
"reference": "Observation/vs-91a59b62244ebfb81c49c5e8",
"display": "6/4/2022 6:33 PM, Body Height - 63 [in_i], Body Weight - 145 [lb_av], Body Mass Index - 25.7 kg/m2"
},
{
"reference": "Procedure/91a59b62b7f1ea939b32cd9b",
"display": "SCANNING OPHTHAL DX IMAGE, OPTIC NERVE"
},
{
"reference": "Procedure/91a59b6257b586ccb0c774e6",
"display": "SCANNING OPHTHAL DX IMAGE, OPTIC NERVE"
},
{
"reference": "Observation/sh-91a59b62311e138786d9ad29",
"display": "ASSERTION"
},
{
"reference": "Encounter/91a59b62bac9efbd03aeb8a7"
}
],
"recorded": "2022-06-04T18:33:52.658+00:00",
"agent": [
{
"type": {
"coding": [
{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/provenance-participant-type",
"code": "performer",
"display": "Performer"
}
]
},
"who": {
"reference": "Practitioner/fffe7f6082012f1d044a5834",
"display": "Demo Doctor"
}
}
],
"entity": [
{
"role": "source",
"what": {
"reference": "DocumentReference/90a59b62d37d8a6c9ceb2770",
"display": "Ambulatory Summary"
}
}
]
}