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Resource Person - Formal Definitions 3.12.5

The formal definitions for the elements in the person resource. Also available as an XML file.

Person
DefinitionA person who is involved in the healthcare process
Control1..1
RequirementsNeed to track persons potentially across multiple roles
CommentsThe 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, Provider, 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, Provider), and multipleBirthInd (SubjectofCare)
RIM MappingPerson(classCode="PSN" and determinerCode="INST" and quantity="1")
Person.identifier
DefinitionIdentifier for a person within a particular scope.
Control0..*
TypeHumanId
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsPeople 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
RIM Mapping.plays:Role(classCode='IDENT').id
v2 MappingPID-3
Person.name
DefinitionA name associated with the person
Control0..*
TypeHumanName
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsNeed to be able to track the person by multiple names. Examples are your official name and a partner name.
CommentsPerson may have multiple names with different uses or applicable periods.
RIM Mapping./name
v2 MappingPID-5, PID-9
Person.telecom
DefinitionA contact detail for the person, e.g. a telephone number or an email address.
Control0..*
TypeContact
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsPeople have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.
CommentsPerson 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
RIM Mapping./telecom
v2 MappingPID-13, PID-14
Person.gender
DefinitionAdministrative Gender
Control0..1
TypeCoding from AdministrativeGender
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsNeeded for identification of the person, in combination with (at least) name and birth date. Gender of person drives many clinical processes.
RIM Mapping./administrativeGender
v2 MappingPID-8
Person.birthDate
DefinitionThe birth date for the person.
Control0..1
TypedateTime
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsAge of person drives many clinical processes. Next to the common use case of capturing someone birth date, also in some common cases time is registered.
CommentsAt least an estimated year should be provided as a guess if the real dob is unknown
RIM Mapping./birthTime
v2 MappingPID-7
Person.deceased
DefinitionIndicates if the Person is deceased or not
Control0..1
Typeboolean
Must Understandtrue
CommentsIf there's no value in the instance it means there is no statement on whether or not the person deceased. Most systems will interpret the absence of a value as a sign of the person being alive.
RIM Mapping./deceasedInd
v2 MappingPID-30
Person.address
DefinitionOne or more addresses for the person
Control0..*
TypeAddress
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsMay need to keep track of persons addresses for contacting, billing or reporting requirements and also to help with identification
CommentsPerson may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods
RIM Mapping./addr
v2 MappingPID-11
Person.maritalStatus
DefinitionThis field contains the patient's marital (civil) status.
Control0..1
TypeCodeableConcept from MaritalStatus
Must Understandtrue
RIM Mapping./maritalStatus
v2 MappingPID-16
Person.language
DefinitionA language spoken by the person, with proficiency
Control0..*
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsIf 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
CommentsIf no language is specified, this *implies* that the default local language is spoken. If you need to convey proficiency for multiple modes than you need multiple Person.language associations.
RIM Mapping.LanguageCommunication
Person.language.language
DefinitionThe ISO-639-1 alpha 2 code in lower case for the language, optionally followed by a hyphen and the ISO-3166-1 alpha 2 code for the region in upper case. E.g. "en" for English, or "en-US" for American English versus "en-EN" for England English
Control1..1
TypeCodeableConcept from Language
Must Understandtrue
RequirementsMost systems in multilingual countries will want to convey language. Not all systems actually need the regional dialect.
CommentsThe 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
RIM Mapping./languageCode
v2 MappingPID-15, NK1-20, LAN-2
To DoSo just ISO 639-3? ISO-639-1 alpha 2 is actually somewhat outdated and ISO-639-2 alpha 3 has support for more languages/dialects.
Person.language.mode
DefinitionA value representing the person's method of expression of this language. Examples: expressed spoken, expressed written, expressed signed, received spoken, received written, received signed
Control0..1
TypeCodeableConcept from LanguageAbilityMode
RequirementsA Person that can write English fairly well, but is not capable to understand
CommentsIt's expected that modeCode and proficiencyLevelCode work in conjunction. It makes less sense to convey modeCode unless you want to distinctly denote someone proficiency for a particular mode. It's however perfectly acceptable to have a proficiencyLevelCode without a modeCode
RIM Mapping./modeCode
v2 MappingLAN-3
Person.language.proficiencyLevel
DefinitionA code that describes how well the language is spoken
Control0..1
TypeCodeableConcept from LanguageAbilityProficiency
Must Understandtrue
CommentsSee comments for Person.language.modeCode
RIM Mapping./proficiencyLanguageCode
v2 MappingLAN-4
Person.language.preference
DefinitionIndicates whether or not the Person prefers this language (over other languages he masters up a certain level)
Control0..1
Typeboolean
RequirementsPeople 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
RIM Mapping./preferenceInd
v2 MappingPID-15, NK1-20
Person.extension
DefinitionSee Extensions
Control0..*
TypeExtension
Person.text
DefinitionText summary of resource (for human interpretation)
Control1..1
TypeNarrative

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