Adding reference to external PDF on FHIR resource

Question

I am wanting to add a reference to an external/3rd party PDF datasheet with more information on a Medication resource, am I best to add this as an extension with the Url of the extension pointing to the "home page" for the datasheets, and a valueString of the URL of the PDF (the PDFs are not currently available via an API).

For example, if I wanted to reference the PDF available at the following: https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.9845.pdf

I'd set the Url = https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/ and the valueString = https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.9845.pdf

Answer 1

It would be better to use valueUri rather than valueString given that it's supposed to be a reference. Your alternative would be have the extension be valueReference that points to a DocumentReference which could then give some metadata about the PDF, but if you don't have that, a simple valueUri is fine. You might also look at the MedicationKnowledge resource, as the focus there is conveying more "drug masterfile" type information. Medication is more the resource sent with the prescription or dispense to describe exactly what was prescribed/dispensed, not to convey knowledge about it.