A person who is directly or indirectly involved in the provisioning of healthcare.

Note that a cab driver no longer fits the bill. You probably would be interested in the organization rather than the individual?

The logical id of the resource, as used in the URL for the resource. Once assigned, this value never changes.

The only time that a resource does not have an id is when it is being submitted to the server using a create operation. Bundles always have an id, though it is usually a generated UUID.

The metadata about the resource. This is content that is maintained by the infrastructure. Changes to the content may not always be associated with version changes to the resource.

A reference to a set of rules that were followed when the resource was constructed, and which must be understood when processing the content.

Asserting this rule set restricts the content to be only understood by a limited set of trading partners. This inherently limits the usefulness of the data in the long term. However, the existing health eco-system is highly fractured, and not yet ready to define, collect, and exchange data in a generally computable sense. Wherever possible, implementers and/or specification writers should avoid using this element as much as possible.

The base language in which the resource is written.

Language is provided to support indexing and accessibility (typically, services such as text to speech use the language tag). The html language tag in the narrative applies to the narrative. The language tag on the resource may be used to specify the language of other presentations generated from the data in the resource Not all the content has to be in the base language. The Resource.language should not be assumed to apply to the narrative automatically. If a language is specified, it should it also be specified on the div element in the html (see rules in HTML5 for information about the relationship between xml:lang and the html lang attribute).

A human-readable narrative that contains a summary of the resource, and may be used to represent the content of the resource to a human. The narrative need not encode all the structured data, but is required to contain sufficient detail to make it "clinically safe" for a human to just read the narrative. Resource definitions may define what content should be represented in the narrative to ensure clinical safety.

Contained resources do not have narrative. Resources that are not contained SHOULD have a narrative.

These resources do not have an independent existence apart from the resource that contains them - they cannot be identified independently, and nor can they have their own independent transaction scope.

This should never be done when the content can be identified properly, as once identification is lost, it is extremely difficult (and context dependent) to restore it again.

The more specific service or occupation within the health care provider type of the practitioner at a specific organization unit, for example, counselor.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

An identifier that applies to this person in this role.

Often, specific identities are assigned for the agent.

Whether this practitioner's record is in active use.

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

Default is true.

If the practitioner is not in use by one organization, then it should mark the period on the PractitonerRole with an end date (even if they are active) as they may be active in another role.

The name(s) associated with the practitioner.

The name(s) that a Practitioner is known by. Where there are multiple, the name that the practitioner is usually known as should be used in the display.

The selection of the use property should ensure that there is a single usual name specified, and others use the nickname (alias), old, or other values as appropriate.

In general select the value to be used in the ResourceReference.display based on this:

1. There is more than 1 name
2. Use = usual
3. Period is current to the date of the usage
4. Use = official
5. Other order as decided by internal business rules.

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

Need to know how to reach a practitioner independent to any roles the practitioner may have.

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

These typically will have home numbers, or mobile numbers that are not role specific.

Address(es) of the practitioner that are not role specific (typically home address). Work addresses are not typically entered in this property as they are usually role dependent.

The home/mailing address of the practitioner is often required for employee administration purposes, and also for some rostering services where the start point (practitioners home) can be used in calculations.

The PractitionerRole does not have an address value on it, as it is expected that the location property be used for this purpose (which has an address).

Administrative Gender - the gender that the person is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes.

Needed to address the person correctly.

The date of birth for the practitioner.

Needed for identification.

Image of the person.

Many EHR systems have the capability to capture an image of patients and personnel. Fits with newer social media usage too.

The list of roles/organizations that the practitioner is associated with.

The address to be used for this PractitionerRole is in the referenced location (removing duplication across all the services provided at the location).

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references).

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

The organization where the Practitioner performs the roles associated.

Roles which this practitioner is authorized to perform for the organization.

Need to know what authority the practitioner has - what can they do?

A person may have more than one role. At least one role is required.

Specific specialty of the practitioner.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references).

Flag indicating if the specialty is the primary specialty of the provider. Normally, a practitioner will have one primary specialty, but in some cases more than one can be primary.

A reference to a code defined by a terminology system.

Allows for translations and alternate encodings within a code system. Also supports communication of the same instance to systems requiring different encodings.

Codes may be defined very casually in enumerations, or code lists, up to very formal definitions such as SNOMED CT - see the HL7 v3 Core Principles for more information. Ordering of codings is undefined and SHALL NOT be used to infer meaning. Generally, at most only one of the coding values will be labelled as UserSelected = true.

A human language representation of the concept as seen/selected/uttered by the user who entered the data and/or which represents the intended meaning of the user.

The codes from the terminologies do not always capture the correct meaning with all the nuances of the human using them, or sometimes there is no appropriate code at all. In these cases, the text is used to capture the full meaning of the source.

Very often the text is the same as a displayName of one of the codings.

Business Identifiers that are specific to a role/location.

Some business identifiers are specific to a location and should be able to be associated.

Contact details that are specific to the role/location/service.

Often practitioners have a dedicated line for each location (or service) that they work at, and need to be able to define separate contact details for each of these.

The period during which the person is authorized to act as a practitioner in these role(s) for the organization.

Even after the agencies is revoked, the fact that it existed must still be recorded.

The location(s) at which this practitioner provides care.

The list of healthcare services that this worker provides for this role's Organization/Location(s).

Qualifications obtained by training and certification.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references).

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

An identifier that applies to this person's qualification in this role.

Often, specific identities are assigned for the qualification.

Coded representation of the qualification.

Period during which the qualification is valid.

Qualifications are often for a limited period of time, and can be revoked.

Organization that regulates and issues the qualification.

A language the practitioner is able to use in patient communication.

Knowing which language a practitioner speaks can help in facilitating communication with patients.

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.