# Chart Data Model

A charting UI reads patient-level data that persists across visits and encounter-level data created during each visit. This page is a reference: the first half covers longitudinal patient context (summary, demographics, devices), the second covers encounter-time resources (Observations, Conditions, Allergies, external documents). Each major resource has its own section. For visit orchestration and the SOAP-aligned template pattern, see Visit Templates and the SOAP Approach.

# Charting

The Charting Decision Guide walks through requirements questions and FHIR modeling decisions for charting — use it alongside these docs.

# Designing Charting

Charting is one of the most important features of an EMR – and one of the hardest to get right. Clinicians have strong opinions shaped by training, specialty, and years in other systems. The surface experience varies enormously: dense structured forms in some products, narrative-first layouts in others. Underneath all of it, the record still has to support safe care and downstream data use.

# Visit Templates and the SOAP Approach

Most clinical products still organize encounter documentation around some variant of SOAP – Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan – even when the screen does not label the sections that way. Visit templates are how Medplum ties that workflow to FHIR: instead of a single undifferentiated note, you instantiate a PlanDefinition per visit type so clinicians get the right questionnaires and order tasks when the encounter opens (Care Templates in Medplum Provider are this concept in the UI).