Figure 4.

Variable names and value names as used in a series of HL7 OBX segments. The kind of observation is indicated using a variable name. The value of the observation can be any of the allowed HL7 types, including NM (numeric) or CE (coded element). For numeric observations, the value of the observation is number, whereas for coded observations the actual value of the observation is indicated by a code. Possible value codes could come from other vocabularies, such as SNOMED, Read Codes, or the UMLS Metathesaurus. In this example, all codes are local, as indicated by the L following each code description.