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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 Id Person
Definition

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

Short Display A generic person record
Cardinality 0..*
Type DomainResource
Requirements

Need to track persons potentially across multiple roles.

Summary false
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 Id Person.identifier
Definition

Identifier for a person within a particular scope.

Short Display A human identifier for this person
Note This is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion)
Cardinality 0..*
Type Identifier
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.

Summary true
Person.active
Element Id Person.active
Definition

Whether this person's record is in active use.

Short Display This person's record is in active use
Cardinality 0..1
Type boolean
Is Modifier true (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.

Summary true
Person.name
Element Id Person.name
Definition

A name associated with the person.

Short Display A name associated with the person
Cardinality 0..*
Type HumanName
Requirements

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

Summary true
Comments

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

Person.telecom
Element Id Person.telecom
Definition

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

Short Display A contact detail for the person
Cardinality 0..*
Type ContactPoint
Requirements

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

Summary true
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 Id Person.gender
Definition

Administrative Gender.

Short Display male | female | other | unknown
Cardinality 0..1
Terminology Binding AdministrativeGender (Required)
Type code
Requirements

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

Summary true
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 Id Person.birthDate
Definition

The birth date for the person.

Short Display The date on which the person was born
Cardinality 0..1
Type date
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.

Summary true
Comments

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

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

Indicates if the individual is deceased or not.

Short Display Indicates if the individual is deceased or not
Cardinality 0..1
Type boolean|dateTime
[x] Note See Choice of Datatypes for further information about how to use [x]
Summary true
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 Id Person.address
Definition

One or more addresses for the person.

Short Display One or more addresses for the person
Cardinality 0..*
Type Address
Requirements

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

Summary true
Comments

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

Person.maritalStatus
Element Id Person.maritalStatus
Definition

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

Short Display Marital (civil) status of a person
Cardinality 0..1
Terminology Binding Marital Status Codes (Extensible)
Type CodeableConcept
Summary false
Comments

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

Person.photo
Element Id Person.photo
Definition

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

Short Display Image of the person
Cardinality 0..*
Type Attachment
Summary false
Person.communication
Element Id Person.communication
Definition

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

Short Display A language which may be used to communicate with the person about his or her health
Cardinality 0..*
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.

Summary false
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 Id Person.communication.language
Definition

The language which may be used to communicate with the individual.

Short Display The language which can be used to communicate with the person about his or her health
Cardinality 1..1
Terminology Binding All Languages (Required)
Additional BindingsPurpose
Common Languages Starter Set
Type CodeableConcept
Requirements

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

Summary false
Comments

The language is commonly represented using the ISO-639-1 alpha code in lower case for the language, optionally followed by a hyphen and the ISO-3166-1 alpha code for the region in upper case. For example, "en" for English, or "en-US" for American English versus "en-AU" for Australian English, sgn-US for American Sign Language, sgn-NL for Dutch Sign Language, etc.

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 Id Person.communication.preferred
Definition

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

Short Display Language preference indicator
Cardinality 0..1
Type boolean
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.

Summary false
Comments

This language is specifically identified for communicating healthcare information.

Person.managingOrganization
Element Id Person.managingOrganization
Definition

The organization that is the custodian of the person record.

Short Display The organization that is the custodian of the person record
Cardinality 0..1
Type Reference(Organization)
Requirements

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

Summary true
Person.link
Element Id Person.link
Definition

Link to a resource that concerns the same actual person.

Short Display Link to a resource that concerns the same actual person
Cardinality 0..*
Summary false
Person.link.target
Element Id Person.link.target
Definition

The resource to which this actual person is associated.

Short Display The resource to which this actual person is associated
Cardinality 1..1
Type Reference(Patient | Practitioner | RelatedPerson | Person)
Hierarchy This reference may point back to the same instance (including transitively)
Summary false
Person.link.assurance
Element Id Person.link.assurance
Definition

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

Short Display level1 | level2 | level3 | level4
Cardinality 0..1
Terminology Binding Identity Assurance Level (Required)
Type code
Summary false