This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v0.5.0: DSTU 2 Ballot 2). The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.0.  For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions  . Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2
. Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2

Detailed Descriptions for the elements in the RelatedPerson resource.
| RelatedPerson | |
| Definition | Information about a person that is involved in the care for a patient, but who is not the target of healthcare, nor has a formal responsibility in the care process. | 
| Control | 1..1 | 
| Requirements | Need to track persons related to the patient or the healthcare process. | 
| RelatedPerson.identifier | |
| Definition | Identifier for a person within a particular scope. | 
| Note | This is a business identifer, not a resource identifier (see discussion) | 
| Control | 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 patient. Examples are national person identifier and local identifier. | 
| Summary | true | 
| RelatedPerson.patient | |
| Definition | The patient this person is related to. | 
| Control | 1..1 | 
| Type | Reference(Patient) | 
| Requirements | We need to know which Patient this RelatedPerson is related to. | 
| Summary | true | 
| RelatedPerson.relationship | |
| Definition | The nature of the relationship between a patient and the related person. | 
| Control | 0..1 | 
| Binding | PatientRelationshipType: Required: See http://hl7.org/fhir/vs/relatedperson-relationshiptype (The nature of the relationship between a patient and the related person) | 
| Type | CodeableConcept | 
| Requirements | We need to know the relationship with the patient since it influences the interpretation of the information attributed to this person. | 
| Summary | true | 
| RelatedPerson.name | |
| Definition | A name associated with the person. | 
| Control | 0..1 | 
| Type | HumanName | 
| Requirements | Related persons need to be identified by name, but it is uncommon to need details about multiple other names for that person. | 
| Summary | true | 
| RelatedPerson.telecom | |
| Definition | A contact detail for the person, e.g. a telephone number or an email address. | 
| Control | 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. | 
| RelatedPerson.gender | |
| Definition | Administrative Gender - the gender that the person is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes. | 
| Control | 0..1 | 
| Binding | AdministrativeGender: Required: http://hl7.org/fhir/administrative-gender (The gender of a person used for administrative purposes) | 
| Type | code | 
| Requirements | Needed for identification of the person, in combination with (at least) name and birth date. | 
| Summary | true | 
| RelatedPerson.address | |
| Definition | Address where the related person can be contacted or visited. | 
| Control | 0..1 | 
| Type | Address | 
| Requirements | Need to keep track where the related person can be contacted per postal mail or visited. | 
| Summary | true | 
| RelatedPerson.photo | |
| Definition | Image of the person. | 
| Control | 0..* | 
| Type | Attachment | 
| Requirements | Many EHR systems have the capability to capture an image of persons. Fits with newer social media usage too. | 
| RelatedPerson.period | |
| Definition | The period of time that this relationship is considered to be valid. If there are no dates defined, then the interval is unknown. | 
| Control | 0..1 | 
| Type | Period |