Assigning Authorities

Introduction

Assigning Authorities define the source or owner of an identifier within AdvaPACS. They are used to distinguish identifiers that may have the same value but originate from different systems, organisations, or facilities.

Assigning Authorities are commonly used with Patient IDs, Accession Numbers, and other identifiers exchanged through DICOM, HL7, and FHIR integrations. Configuring them correctly helps ensure studies, patients, and orders are matched accurately and prevents identifiers from different systems from conflicting.

Feature Cannot Be Disabled

Enabling Assigning Authorities is a permanent change for your AdvaPACS tenant. While the feature itself cannot be turned off once enabled, individual Assigning Authorities can still be managed and removed if they are no longer required.

Adding Assigning Authorities

1. Navigate to Admin -> Settings.

2. Click on the Assigning Authorities tab.

3. Click the "+" symbol to add a new Assigning Authority.

   

4. Fill in the relevant information for the authority:

   • Type – Selects the type of identifier this Assigning Authority will be used for (for the various types AdvaPACS support, please see below).
   • Namespace ID – The unique name used to identify the Assigning Authority. This should match the value sent by your external systems.
   • Universal Entity ID – A globally unique identifier for the Assigning Authority.
   • Universal Entity Type ID – Specifies the format of the Universal Entity ID, such as ISO, UUID, or URI.
   • FHIR System – The FHIR identifier system (Identifier.system) associated with this Assigning Authority.
   • Organisation – The organisation that this Assigning Authority belongs to.

5. Click Add to add the new Assigning Authority to your Tenant.

Assigning Authority Types

The Type determines what kind of identifier the Assigning Authority represents. This value is used by AdvaPACS when processing identifiers from HL7, DICOM, and FHIR integrations. Select the type that matches the identifier issued by your external system.

Type	Relates To	Description
MR	Patient	Medical Record Number (MRN).
NI	Patient	National Unique Individual Identifier.
NNxxx	Patient	Country-specific national identifier. For example, NNSGP, NNMYS.
PI	Patient	Patient Internal Identifier assigned by a local system.
PN	Patient	Person Number assigned to an individual.
PPN	Patient	Passport Number.
PT	Patient	Patient External Identifier assigned by another organisation.
PGN	Patient	Person Global Identifier assigned to an individual.
ACSN	Order	Accession Number used to identify an imaging order or request.
PLAC	Order	Placer Order Number assigned by the system that created the order.
FILL	Order	Filler Order Number assigned by the system fulfilling the order.
VN	Encounter	Visit Number identifying a patient encounter or visit.
DN	Practitioner	Doctor Number identifying a healthcare provider.
PRN	Practitioner	Provider Number identifying a healthcare provider.
UPIN	Practitioner	Universal Physician Identification Number.
RI	Resource	Resource Identifier for equipment, locations, or other resources.
U	General	Unspecified identifier type.