Data Sharing Framework (DSF) Implementation Guide
2.0.0 - ci-build

Data Sharing Framework (DSF) Implementation Guide - Local Development build (v2.0.0) built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) Build Tools. See the Directory of published versions

Allowlist

The DSF (Data Sharing Framework) uses allow lists to control and restrict interactions between FHIR servers. The primary goal is to ensure that only authorized organizations can perform specific actions — such as starting a process instance — and only within the limits explicitly permitted.

Core Concepts

To achieve this, each DSF FHIR server must:

  1. Define trusted organizations
    Maintain a list of external organizations that are trusted to participate in defined workflows.

  2. Verify organizational membership
    Ensure that a communicating system belongs to a trusted parent organization (e.g. a research consortium or institution).

  3. Specify allowed actions
    Determine which roles and operations a trusted organization is permitted to perform in a given context.

Allow List Resources

Allow lists in DSF are built using standard FHIR resources:

  • Organization: Represents a participating entity (e.g. a hospital, research institute).
  • Endpoint: Describes how to technically reach an organization (e.g. base URL for its FHIR server).
  • OrganizationAffiliation: Describes relationships between organizations, such as membership in consortia or assignment of specific roles.

Together, these resources define:

  • Communication partners: Which external systems are allowed to send or receive messages.
  • Parent organizations: Higher-level entities (e.g. consortia) that authorize affiliated members.

To enforce Role-based permissions, so what actions an organization is allowed to perform in a given use case, please read the ActivityDefinition page.

Local Control and Enforcement

Each DSF FHIR server maintains and enforces its own allow list. This means that:

  • Trust and permissions are locally configured.
  • An organization must appear on the local allow list of a partner server to be recognized as a valid communication party.
  • Without a valid allow list entry, process execution and reading data will be rejected.

In summary, allow lists serve as a decentralized trust and access control mechanism within the DSF ecosystem, ensuring secure and well-defined communication between authorized participants.