This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v0.01: Historical Archive Draft). The current version which supercedes this version is 4.0.1. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

# Person

A person who is involved in the healthcare process.

The relative url is /people

## Content

    <Person xmlns="http://www.hl7.org/fhir">
      <id> mand id Master Resource Id, always first in all resources</id>
      <identifier> Zero+ HumanId A Human identifier for this person</identifier>
      <name> Zero+ HumanName A name associated with the person</name>
      <address> Zero+ Address An address for the person</address>
      <contact> Zero+ Contact A contact detail for the person</contact>
      <dob> opt dateTime The birth date for the person</dob>
      <gender> opt CodeableConcept Administrative Gender</gender>
      <religion> opt CodeableConcept Religion of the person</religion>
      <race> opt Zero+ CodeableConcept The race of a person</race>
      <qualification>  <!-- Zero+ Qualifications, Accreditations, Certifications -->
       <id> opt Identifier Identifier for the qualification</id>
       <code> opt CodeableConcept A code for the qualification</code>
       <institution> opt (Organization) Who conferred it</institution>
       <period> opt Interval(date) When the qualification is valid</period>
      </qualification>
      <language>  <!-- Zero+ -->
       <code> mand code ISO 639-3 code for language</code>
       <use> opt code How well the language is used</use>
      </language>
      <relatedPerson>  <!-- Zero+ Kin, Guardians, Agents, Caregivers -->
       <id> opt HumanId Identifier for the person</id>
       <role> mand CodeableConcept Type of relationship</role>
       <name> opt HumanName Name of the person</name>
       <contact> Zero+ Contact Contact details for the person</contact>
      </relatedPerson>
      <extensions> opt See Extensions   See Extensions </extensions>
      <text> mand Narrative Text summary of person, for human interpretation</text>
    </Person>

Schema for Person and an example (or formatted for browser)

Terminology Bindings

- Person.gender is bound to the concept domain AdministrativeGender: "The gender of a person used for administrative purposes"
- Person.religion is bound to the concept domain Religion: "The denomination to which a person professes affiliation"
- Person.race is bound to the concept domain Race: "The race of the person". If an appropriate code exists in HL7 v2 table 0200 then it should be used
- Person.qualification.code is bound to the concept domain Qualifications: "Formal qualifications, accreditations, and Certifications acquired by a person"
- Person.language.code is bound to the concept domain Language: "A human language". The possible values are those specified in ISO 639-3
- Person.language.use is bound to the concept domain LanguageUse: "How well a person speaks a language". Possible values:

  none | The person does not speak the language at all
  poor | The person has minimal functional capability in the language
  useable | The person can use the language, but may not be full conversant, particularly with regards to health concepts
  fluent | The person is fully capable of using the language

- Person.relatedPerson.role is bound to the concept domain PersonRelationship: "The relationship a person has to the subject, including familial, marital, financial, legal, and casual relationships"

Notes:

- There are various types of people of interest - patients, employees, etc. Different types of people might come from different service end points.
- The administrative gender of the patient is that one that matters for the record. This may match the gendor of birth or the current socially-reported gender.
- Qualifications covers both formal education gained in the past, and ongoing certification and accreditation often associated with healthcare providers.
- Various jurisdictions define their own qualification and/or codes, and some care about this more than others.
- The organization references are all optional, so can be replaced by simple text rather than a full resource reference
- A related person can be either reference to another resource using the id, or can provide what is known about the person directly

## Searching Criteria

The following simple search/filter parameters are defined for person:

name | a portion of name in any name part
phonetic | a portion of name using some kind of phonetic matching algorithm
id | search id in any identifiers
contact | the value in any kind of contact
address | an address in any kind of address/part
gender | gender of the person

The standard search parameters also apply (see Searching).

## Formal Definitions

The formal definitions for the elements above. Also available as an XML file.

Person
Definition | A person who is involved in the healthcare process
Control | Mandatory, 1..1
Requirements | Need to track persons across multiple roles
RIM Mapping | Person(classCode=PSN, determinerCode=INST)
Person.id
Definition | Master Resource Id, always first in all resources
Control | Mandatory, 1..1
Type | id
RIM Mapping | .id(scope=OBJ)
Person.identifier
Definition | Identifier for the person that is used to identify the person across multiple disparate systems and also for face to face identification of the person
Control | 0..*
Type | HumanId
Must Understand | true
Requirements | People are known by a variety of ids. Some institutions maintain several, and most collect identifiers for exchange with other organizations concerning the patient.
RIM Mapping | .plays:Role(classCode='IDENT').id
v2 Mapping | PID-3
Person.name
Definition | A name associated with the person
Control | 0..*
Type | HumanName
Must Understand | true
Requirements | Need to be able to track the person by multiple names
Comments | Person may have multiple names with different uses or applicable periods
RIM Mapping | .name
v2 Mapping | PID-5, PID-9
Person.address
Definition | An address for the person
Control | 0..*
Type | Address
Requirements | May need to keep track of persons addresses for contacting, billing or reporting requirements and also to help with identification
Comments | Person may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods
RIM Mapping | .addr
v2 Mapping | PID-11
Person.contact
Definition | A contact detail for the person
Control | 0..*
Type | Contact
Requirements | May need to have options for contacting the person urgently, and also to help with identification
Comments | Person may have multiple contacts with different uses or applicable periods
RIM Mapping | .telecom
v2 Mapping | PID-13, PID-14
Person.dob
Definition | The birth date for the person
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | dateTime
Must Understand | true
Requirements | Age of person drives many clinical processes.
Comments | At least a estimated year should be provided as a guess if the real dob is unknown
RIM Mapping | .birthTime
Person.gender
Definition | Administrative Gender
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | CodeableConcept from AdministrativeGender
Must Understand | true
Requirements | Patient Identification, and also for managing the patient
RIM Mapping | .administrativeGender
Person.religion
Definition | The religious denomination to which a person professes affiliation
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | CodeableConcept from Religion
Requirements | The religion of a person may influence ancilliary processes around the provision of healthcare, and may provide general advice with regard to diet, etc
Comments | Not all people have a formal religious affiliation
RIM Mapping | .religiousAffiliationCode
Person.race
Definition | blah balh
Control | Optional, 0..*
Type | CodeableConcept from Race
Requirements | This is added because many jurisdictions insisted on it
Comments | Some places do not use this!
RIM Mapping | .raceCode
Person.qualification
Definition | The qualifications a person has, including formal educational achievements, accreditations, and current certifications. All these qualifications may be used to determine what roles a person may play in a healthcare environment
Control | 0..*
Requirements | For many persons in healthcare, it is necessary to track the qualifications a person has - formal.
RIM Mapping | .plays:Role(classCode='QUAL')
Person.qualification.id
Definition | The identifier of a qualification
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | Identifier
Requirements | Allows a link back to a qualification registry, if one exists
RIM Mapping | .identifier
Person.qualification.code
Definition | The type of the qualification
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | CodeableConcept from Qualifications
Requirements | commonly used to determine the roles a person may play
RIM Mapping | .code
Person.qualification.institution
Definition | The organisation that confered/confers the qualification
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | Resource(Organization)
Requirements | May determine the significance of the qualification, and allows a link back to a qualification registry, if one exists
RIM Mapping | .scopedBy:Organization
Person.qualification.period
Definition | The period for which a qualification is held
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | Interval(date)
Requirements | Some qualifications are only conferred for a limited time period and must be re-acquired or forfeited
Comments | Formal degrees may have a known start date, but no end date
RIM Mapping | .effectiveTime:IVL_TS
Person.language
Definition | A language spoken by the person, with proficiency
Control | 0..*
Requirements | If a patient does not speak the local language, interpreters may be required, so languages spoken and profiency is an important things to keep track of both for patient and other persons of interest
Comments | If no language is specified, this *implies* that the default local language is spoken
RIM Mapping | .LanguageCommunicationCode
Person.language.code
Definition | A code that identifies the language
Control | Mandatory, 1..1
Type | code from Language
Comments | So just ISO 639-3? Not allowing ENG-CA or something?
RIM Mapping | .languageCode
Person.language.use
Definition | A code the describes how well the language is spoken
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | code from LanguageUse
Comments | No differentiation is made between spoken and written functionality here
RIM Mapping | .proficiencyLanguageCode
Person.relatedPerson
Definition | Other persons who are related to this person. The relationship might be one of several types: kin (familial or marital), financial or legal (such as guardian), biological (e.g. donor, donation-recipient) or casual (i.e. friend).
Control | 0..*
Requirements | Need to be able to track next of kin, or other people who may need to contacted/consulting regarding the patient's healthcare status or who might otherwise influence their treatment
RIM Mapping | .plays:Role(classCode='REL')
Person.relatedPerson.id
Definition | Identifier the related person - may be a full link to a Person resource, or some other kind of identifier
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | HumanId
Requirements | may have an identifier for the person that can be used to source contact details
RIM Mapping | .scopedBy:Person.identifier
Person.relatedPerson.role
Definition | Code that specifies how this person is related to the subject. A code is required.
Control | Mandatory, 1..1
Type | CodeableConcept from PersonRelationship
Requirements | Need to know how the person is related
RIM Mapping | .code
Person.relatedPerson.name
Definition | A name should be specified for the related person
Control | Optional, 0..1
Type | HumanName
RIM Mapping | .scopedBy:Person.name
Person.relatedPerson.contact
Definition | Contact details (phone, email etc) should be provided for the person
Control | 0..*
Type | Contact
RIM Mapping | .scopedBy:Person.telecom
Person.extensions
Definition | See Extensions
Control | Optional, 0..1
Person.text
Definition | Text summary of person, for human interpretation
Control | Mandatory, 1..1
Type | Narrative

This is an old version of FHIR retained for archive purposes. Do not use for anything else
Implementers are welcome to experiment with the content defined here, but should note that the contents are subject to change without prior notice.
© HL7.org 2011 - 2012. FHIR v0.01 generated on Mon, May 14, 2012 09:48+1000.