8.37 Resource PersonalRelationship - Content

8.37.1 Scope and Usage

This is not the right relationship for short-term, highly transient relationships. Marriage, for example, is usually a longer term relationship, so this resource is appropriate.
Such as:

• Represent relationship between two members
• Represent the certainty of the relationship
• Represent the temporal nature of the relationship
  (e.g., father/daughter is mostly persistent, but resident in household is very transient).

A short term relationship such as "sat next to in a meeting" is not appropriate for this resource.
This is not the right resource for living arrangements. That may be group instead?
This is not for tracking relationship between care team and the patient. For example, the social worker would be a Practitioner on your Care Team.
This is not for tracking caregivers that are performing actions. For example, the lady taking you to church would be a RelatedPerson. But if that lady is your neighbor, then the neighbor relationship may be represented in this resource, though not used in tracking care.
PersonalRelationship is not to be used to represent the relationship of "provides care for". That should be in CareTeam.
This is not the right resource to represent the role of the person within a group (e.g., the head of the household is the decision maker), that would be recorded in the Group.member.involvement element.

8.37.1.1 Potential use cases:

• Public Health
• Isolation
• Contact tracing
• WIC programs
• Congregate housing
• 2/15/2024 - Public Health WG has indicated they are interested, and wants to be kept up to date.
• Social Care
• Gravity
• Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
• Occupational Health
• Shared exposures or environments
• Military Health (for representing units)
• First responders
• Research

8.37.2 Boundaries and Relationships

Boundaries between this and RelatedPerson
The RelatedPerson resource specifically represents a person, along with their relationship to the patient.
It contains the details of both the individual, and the relationship. In contrast to this PersonalRelationship resource which purely represents the relationship between two individuals.

Boundaries between this and FamilyMemberHistory
Although there is a relationship within the family member history, it is not the same as the relationship. It intends to provide the details of the family member's health history that could be relevant to the patient, not the relationship itself.

Boundaries between this and CareTeam
PersonalRelationship is not to be used to represent the relationship of "provides care for". That should be in CareTeam.

Boundaries between this and Group
A group contains all the members and the involvement property indicates the member's relationship to the group, not to the other individuals withing the group.

• Structure
• UML
• XML
• JSON
• Turtle
• R4 Diff
• All

Structure

Name	Flags	Card.	Type	Description & Constraints
PersonalRelationship	D		DomainResource	A relationship between two indiduals Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
source	Σ	1..1	Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Person)	The individual that is the the source of the relationship
relationshipType	Σ	1..1	CodeableConcept	The relationship between the source and the target individuals Binding: Personal Relationship Type (Preferred)
target	Σ	1..1	Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Person)	The individual that is the the target of the relationship
period		0..*	Period	The period of time during which the relationship is active
confidence	Σ	0..1	CodeableConcept	The confidence level of this relationship Binding: Confidence (Example)
asserter		0..1	Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Practitioner | Organization)	Who has asserted the details of the relationship
group	Σ	0..*	Reference(Group)	This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s)
Documentation for this format

See the Extensions for this resource

<PersonalRelationship xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir"> 
 <!-- from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language -->
 <!-- from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension -->
 <source><!-- 1..1 Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) The individual that is the the source of the relationship --></source>
 <relationshipType><!-- 1..1 CodeableConcept The relationship between the source and the target individuals --></relationshipType>
 <target><!-- 1..1 Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) The individual that is the the target of the relationship --></target>
 <period><!-- 0..* Period The period of time during which the relationship is active --></period>
 <confidence><!-- 0..1 CodeableConcept The confidence level of this relationship --></confidence>
 <asserter><!-- 0..1 Reference(Organization|Patient|Practitioner|RelatedPerson) Who has asserted the details of the relationship --></asserter>
 <group><!-- 0..* Reference(Group) This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s) --></group>
</PersonalRelationship>

{
  "resourceType" : "PersonalRelationship",
  // from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language
  // from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension
  "source" : { Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) }, // R!  The individual that is the the source of the relationship
  "relationshipType" : { CodeableConcept }, // R!  The relationship between the source and the target individuals
  "target" : { Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) }, // R!  The individual that is the the target of the relationship
  "period" : [{ Period }], // The period of time during which the relationship is active
  "confidence" : { CodeableConcept }, // The confidence level of this relationship
  "asserter" : { Reference(Organization|Patient|Practitioner|RelatedPerson) }, // Who has asserted the details of the relationship
  "group" : [{ Reference(Group) }] // This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s)
}

@prefix fhir: <http://hl7.org/fhir/> .


[ a fhir:PersonalRelationship;
  fhir:nodeRole fhir:treeRoot; # if this is the parser root

  # from Resource: .id, .meta, .implicitRules, and .language
  # from DomainResource: .text, .contained, .extension, and .modifierExtension
  fhir:source [ Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) ] ; # 1..1 The individual that is the the source of the relationship
  fhir:relationshipType [ CodeableConcept ] ; # 1..1 The relationship between the source and the target individuals
  fhir:target [ Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) ] ; # 1..1 The individual that is the the target of the relationship
  fhir:period  ( [ Period ] ... ) ; # 0..* The period of time during which the relationship is active
  fhir:confidence [ CodeableConcept ] ; # 0..1 The confidence level of this relationship
  fhir:asserter [ Reference(Organization|Patient|Practitioner|RelatedPerson) ] ; # 0..1 Who has asserted the details of the relationship
  fhir:group  ( [ Reference(Group) ] ... ) ; # 0..* This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s)
]

Structure

Name	Flags	Card.	Type	Description & Constraints
PersonalRelationship	D		DomainResource	A relationship between two indiduals Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
source	Σ	1..1	Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Person)	The individual that is the the source of the relationship
relationshipType	Σ	1..1	CodeableConcept	The relationship between the source and the target individuals Binding: Personal Relationship Type (Preferred)
target	Σ	1..1	Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Person)	The individual that is the the target of the relationship
period		0..*	Period	The period of time during which the relationship is active
confidence	Σ	0..1	CodeableConcept	The confidence level of this relationship Binding: Confidence (Example)
asserter		0..1	Reference(Patient | RelatedPerson | Practitioner | Organization)	Who has asserted the details of the relationship
group	Σ	0..*	Reference(Group)	This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s)
Documentation for this format

See the Extensions for this resource

UML Diagram (Legend)

XML Template

<PersonalRelationship xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir"> 
 <!-- from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language -->
 <!-- from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension -->
 <source><!-- 1..1 Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) The individual that is the the source of the relationship --></source>
 <relationshipType><!-- 1..1 CodeableConcept The relationship between the source and the target individuals --></relationshipType>
 <target><!-- 1..1 Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) The individual that is the the target of the relationship --></target>
 <period><!-- 0..* Period The period of time during which the relationship is active --></period>
 <confidence><!-- 0..1 CodeableConcept The confidence level of this relationship --></confidence>
 <asserter><!-- 0..1 Reference(Organization|Patient|Practitioner|RelatedPerson) Who has asserted the details of the relationship --></asserter>
 <group><!-- 0..* Reference(Group) This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s) --></group>
</PersonalRelationship>

JSON Template

{
  "resourceType" : "PersonalRelationship",
  // from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language
  // from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension
  "source" : { Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) }, // R!  The individual that is the the source of the relationship
  "relationshipType" : { CodeableConcept }, // R!  The relationship between the source and the target individuals
  "target" : { Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) }, // R!  The individual that is the the target of the relationship
  "period" : [{ Period }], // The period of time during which the relationship is active
  "confidence" : { CodeableConcept }, // The confidence level of this relationship
  "asserter" : { Reference(Organization|Patient|Practitioner|RelatedPerson) }, // Who has asserted the details of the relationship
  "group" : [{ Reference(Group) }] // This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s)
}

Turtle Template

@prefix fhir: <http://hl7.org/fhir/> .


[ a fhir:PersonalRelationship;
  fhir:nodeRole fhir:treeRoot; # if this is the parser root

  # from Resource: .id, .meta, .implicitRules, and .language
  # from DomainResource: .text, .contained, .extension, and .modifierExtension
  fhir:source [ Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) ] ; # 1..1 The individual that is the the source of the relationship
  fhir:relationshipType [ CodeableConcept ] ; # 1..1 The relationship between the source and the target individuals
  fhir:target [ Reference(Patient|Person|RelatedPerson) ] ; # 1..1 The individual that is the the target of the relationship
  fhir:period  ( [ Period ] ... ) ; # 0..* The period of time during which the relationship is active
  fhir:confidence [ CodeableConcept ] ; # 0..1 The confidence level of this relationship
  fhir:asserter [ Reference(Organization|Patient|Practitioner|RelatedPerson) ] ; # 0..1 Who has asserted the details of the relationship
  fhir:group  ( [ Reference(Group) ] ... ) ; # 0..* This relationship is applicable to the referenced group(s)
]

Changes from both R4 and R4B

This resource did not exist in Release R4

See the Full Difference for further information

This analysis is available for R4 as XML or JSON and for R4B as XML or JSON.