Encapsulated Data

Namespace: OpenEHR.RM.DataTypes.Encapsulated

Encapsulated types carry payloads that are not directly interpretable by the RM itself — either binary content (DvMultimedia) or structured text in an external format (DvParsable).

DvEncapsulated (abstract)

The abstract base for both types. Carries language, charset, and optional size/hash metadata.

Property	Type	Description
Charset	CodePhrase?	IANA character set (e.g. "UTF-8")
Language	CodePhrase?	ISO 639-1 language code

DvMultimedia

Stores binary content such as DICOM images, PDFs, audio, or video — either inline as a byte[] or by reference via a DvUri.

// Inline PNG
var ecgImage = new DvMultimedia
{
    MediaType    = new CodePhrase(new TerminologyId("IANA_media-types"), "image/png"),
    Data         = File.ReadAllBytes("ecg.png"),
    Size         = new FileInfo("ecg.png").Length,
    IntegrityCheck = ComputeSha256("ecg.png"),
    IntegrityCheckAlgorithm = new CodePhrase(
                                  new TerminologyId("openehr_integrity_check_algorithms"),
                                  "SHA-256")
};

// By reference (the binary lives elsewhere)
var ctScan = new DvMultimedia
{
    MediaType = new CodePhrase(new TerminologyId("IANA_media-types"), "application/dicom"),
    Uri       = new DvUri("https://pacs.hospital.example/studies/1.2.3.4")
};

Guidance — Prefer Uri references for large binaries to avoid inflating composition sizes. Store the DICOM in a PACS and reference it.

DvParsable

Stores structured text content whose internal format is known but is not interpreted by the openEHR RM — for example an HL7 v2 message segment, an HTML fragment, or a CDA document excerpt.

var hl7Segment = new DvParsable
{
    Value       = "OBX|1|NM|8867-4^Heart rate^LN||72|/min|…",
    Formalism   = "hl7v2_segment"
};

var htmlNote = new DvParsable
{
    Value     = "<p>Follow-up in <strong>4 weeks</strong></p>",
    Formalism = "text/html"
};

The Formalism property is a free-form string identifying the syntax of the payload.