[Video] Enhancing SDC Workflows with AI – Maria Ryzhikova at FHIR DevDays 2025

This post is part of a series on Health Samurai sessions from HL7 FHIR DevDays 2025. In this article, “Enhancing SDC workflows with AI: Automation and beyond,” Aidbox Forms Product Manager Maria Ryzhikova shows how AI can reduce manual work in FHIR SDC Questionnaire design, multilingual support, and other data-capture workflows.

What you'll learn:‍

• How FHIR SDC extends Questionnaire/QuestionnaireResponse with logic, rendering, and extraction features.
• How AI can turn a clinical PDF into a starter FHIR Questionnaire.
• How multilingual SDC forms can be generated and maintained using FHIR’s translation extensions.
• Which SDC areas are next candidates for AI assistance (expressions, prefill, extraction, conversational filling).

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SDC basics and why AI helps

FHIR SDC builds on Questionnaire and QuestionnaireResponse, adding conditional logic, UI rendering rules, pre-filling, and structured extraction so complex forms can be implemented in a consistent way. Designing these forms is labor-intensive: implementers must define complex nested branched structure, author FHIRPath expressions, configure prefill logic, and map responses into other FHIR resources. . AI changes this by generating the basic FHIR Questionnaire from scratch, eliminating manual effort, reducing development time, and minimizing typing errors.

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From PDF to Questionnaire

The session demonstrates converting the GAD‑7 anxiety screening PDF into a FHIR Questionnaire. A PDF is uploaded to the Aidbox Public Form Builder, OCR extracts text and layout, and an AI model proposes a Questionnaire structure that mirrors questions and answer options. The generated JSON is then validated, issues are corrected, and the Questionnaire is stored on a FHIR server and opened in the Form Builder, where layout, widgets, and scoring (for example, total score via FHIRPath) are refined. AI supplies a structured starting point instead of requiring a fully manual build.

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Multilingual questionnaires with AI

Maria also shows how the same form can be maintained in multiple languages without duplicating Questionnaires. A default language is set on the Questionnaire, a target language is chosen, and an AI-based interface generates translations for item text and answer labels. These translations are stored in a Questionnaire using standard FHIR translation extensions and can be reviewed and edited. Switching the active language re-renders the form (for example, English vs French) from the same underlying Questionnaire definition.

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Future AI directions in SDC

Planned and experimental uses of AI in SDC aim to streamline form design and broaden accessibility. Key applications include:

• Generating calculated expressions, prefill rules, and extraction mappings from simple textual prompts.
• Building complete forms from narrative descriptions.
• Analyzing existing forms to identify common parts and create reusable components.
• Guiding users through forms via conversational or voice interfaces.
• Converting PDFs into QuestionnaireResponses to digitize entire medical workflows.

These features open SDC to non-technical users and cut design time dramatically.

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Resources

Watch Maria's full presentation from FHIR DevDays 2025 and the complete Health Samurai playlist:‍
Watch the full video
Full playlist on YouTube

Connect with Maria on LinkedIn.

Try Aidbox Forms and its Public Builder to experiment with PDF-to-Questionnaire conversion, validation, and multilingual SDC forms.

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