Release 5

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v5.0.0: R5 - STU). This is the current published version. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions . Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2

Patient Administration icon Work GroupMaturity Level: 4 Trial UseSecurity Category: Patient Compartments: Patient, Practitioner, RelatedPerson

Detailed Descriptions for the elements in the Person resource.

Person
Element IdPerson
Definition

Demographics and administrative information about a person independent of a specific health-related context.

Short DisplayA generic person record
Cardinality0..*
TypeDomainResource
Requirements

Need to track persons potentially across multiple roles.

Summaryfalse
Comments

The Person resource does justice to person registries that keep track of persons regardless of their role. The Person resource is also a primary resource to point to for people acting in a particular role such as SubjectofCare, Practitioner, and Agent. Very few attributes are specific to any role and so Person is kept lean. Most attributes are expected to be tied to the role the Person plays rather than the Person himself. Examples of that are Guardian (SubjectofCare), ContactParty (SubjectOfCare, Practitioner), and multipleBirthInd (SubjectofCare).

Person.identifier
Element IdPerson.identifier
Definition

Identifier for a person within a particular scope.

Short DisplayA human identifier for this person
NoteThis is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion)
Cardinality0..*
TypeIdentifier
Requirements

People are known by a variety of ids. Some institutions maintain several, and most collect identifiers for exchange with other organizations concerning the person. Examples are national person identifier and local identifier.

Summarytrue
Person.active
Element IdPerson.active
Definition

Whether this person's record is in active use.

Short DisplayThis person's record is in active use
Cardinality0..1
Typeboolean
Is Modifiertrue (Reason: This element is labelled as a modifier because it is a status element that can indicate that a record should not be treated as valid)
Requirements

Need to be able to mark a person record as not to be used because it was created in error.

Summarytrue
Person.name
Element IdPerson.name
Definition

A name associated with the person.

Short DisplayA name associated with the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeHumanName
Requirements

Need to be able to track the person by multiple names. Examples are your official name and a partner name.

Summarytrue
Comments

Person may have multiple names with different uses or applicable periods.

Person.telecom
Element IdPerson.telecom
Definition

A contact detail for the person, e.g. a telephone number or an email address.

Short DisplayA contact detail for the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeContactPoint
Requirements

People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.

Summarytrue
Comments

Person may have multiple ways to be contacted with different uses or applicable periods. May need to have options for contacting the person urgently and also to help with identification.

Person.gender
Element IdPerson.gender
Definition

Administrative Gender.

Short Displaymale | female | other | unknown
Cardinality0..1
Terminology BindingAdministrativeGender (Required)
Typecode
Requirements

Needed for identification of the person, in combination with (at least) name and birth date. Gender of person drives many clinical processes.

Summarytrue
Comments

The gender might not match the biological sex as determined by genetics, or the individual's preferred identification. Note that for both humans and particularly animals, there are other legitimate possibilities than M and F, though a clear majority of systems and contexts only support M and F.

Person.birthDate
Element IdPerson.birthDate
Definition

The birth date for the person.

Short DisplayThe date on which the person was born
Cardinality0..1
Typedate
Requirements

Age of person drives many clinical processes, and is often used in performing identification of the person. Times are not included so as to not confuse things with potential timezone issues.

Summarytrue
Comments

At least an estimated year should be provided as a guess if the real DOB is unknown.

Person.deceased[x]
Element IdPerson.deceased[x]
Definition

Indicates if the individual is deceased or not.

Short DisplayIndicates if the individual is deceased or not
Cardinality0..1
Typeboolean|dateTime
[x] NoteSee Choice of Datatypes for further information about how to use [x]
Summarytrue
Comments

If there's no value in the instance, it means there is no statement on whether or not the individual is deceased. Most systems will interpret the absence of a value as a sign of the person being alive.

Person.address
Element IdPerson.address
Definition

One or more addresses for the person.

Short DisplayOne or more addresses for the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeAddress
Requirements

May need to keep track of person's addresses for contacting, billing or reporting requirements and also to help with identification.

Summarytrue
Comments

Person may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods.

Person.maritalStatus
Element IdPerson.maritalStatus
Definition

This field contains a person's most recent marital (civil) status.

Short DisplayMarital (civil) status of a person
Cardinality0..1
Terminology BindingMarital Status Codes (Extensible)
TypeCodeableConcept
Summaryfalse
Comments

Many countries maintain a register of births, deaths and marriages, and this would simplify that interaction

Person.photo
Element IdPerson.photo
Definition

An image that can be displayed as a thumbnail of the person to enhance the identification of the individual.

Short DisplayImage of the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeAttachment
Summaryfalse
Person.communication
Element IdPerson.communication
Definition

A language which may be used to communicate with the person about his or her health.

Short DisplayA language which may be used to communicate with the person about his or her health
Cardinality0..*
Requirements

If a person does not speak the local language, interpreters may be required, so languages spoken and proficiency are important things to keep track of both for person and other persons of interest.

Summaryfalse
Comments

If no language is specified, this implies that the default local language is spoken. If you need to convey proficiency for multiple modes, then you need multiple Person.Communication associations. For animals, language is not a relevant field, and should be absent from the instance. If the Patient does not speak the default local language, then the Interpreter Required Standard can be used to explicitly declare that an interpreter is required.

Note that this property should not be used to update any linked/logically linked practitioner resources as it serves as a language that can be used to communicate with patients - however it may be used to inform the value on practitioner, along with their role at the organization (with the practitioner's permission)

Person.communication.language
Element IdPerson.communication.language
Definition

The ISO-639-1 alpha 2 code in lower case for the language, optionally followed by a hyphen and the ISO-3166-1 alpha 2 code for the region in upper case; e.g. "en" for English, or "en-US" for American English versus "en-AU" for Australian English.

Short DisplayThe language which can be used to communicate with the person about his or her health
Cardinality1..1
Terminology BindingAll Languages (Required)
Additional BindingsPurpose
Common LanguagesStarter Set
TypeCodeableConcept
Requirements

Most systems in multilingual countries will want to convey language. Not all systems actually need the regional dialect.

Summaryfalse
Comments

The structure aa-BB with this exact casing is one the most widely used notations for locale. However not all systems actually code this but instead have it as free text. Hence CodeableConcept instead of code as the data type.

Person.communication.preferred
Element IdPerson.communication.preferred
Definition

Indicates whether or not the person prefers this language (over other languages he masters up a certain level).

Short DisplayLanguage preference indicator
Cardinality0..1
Typeboolean
Requirements

People that master multiple languages up to certain level may prefer one or more, i.e. feel more confident in communicating in a particular language making other languages sort of a fall back method.

Summaryfalse
Comments

This language is specifically identified for communicating healthcare information.

Person.managingOrganization
Element IdPerson.managingOrganization
Definition

The organization that is the custodian of the person record.

Short DisplayThe organization that is the custodian of the person record
Cardinality0..1
TypeReference(Organization)
Requirements

Need to know who recognizes this person record, manages and updates it.

Summarytrue
Person.link
Element IdPerson.link
Definition

Link to a resource that concerns the same actual person.

Short DisplayLink to a resource that concerns the same actual person
Cardinality0..*
Summaryfalse
Person.link.target
Element IdPerson.link.target
Definition

The resource to which this actual person is associated.

Short DisplayThe resource to which this actual person is associated
Cardinality1..1
TypeReference(Patient | Practitioner | RelatedPerson | Person)
HierarchyThis reference may point back to the same instance (including transitively)
Summaryfalse
Person.link.assurance
Element IdPerson.link.assurance
Definition

Level of assurance that this link is associated with the target resource.

Short Displaylevel1 | level2 | level3 | level4
Cardinality0..1
Terminology BindingIdentity Assurance Level (Required)
Typecode
Summaryfalse