Summary
Diagnostics
Care Provision
Request & Response
Medications
Workflow
Entities
Management
Individuals
General
Billing
Support
Payment
Security
Other
Conformance
Documents
Terminology
Definitional Artifacts
Evidence-Based Medicine
Quality Reporting & Testing
Medication Definition
Public Health & Research
Complex
Primitive
ActivityDefinition
CapabilityStatement
ChargeItemDefinition
Claim
CodeSystem
Composition
ConceptMap
CoverageEligibilityRequest
Encounter
Group
Library
List
Measure
MedicinalProduct
MessageHeader
NamingSystem
Observation
Patient
PlanDefinition
Resource
StructureDefinition
StructureMap
ValueSet
default
Demographics and other administrative information about an individual or animal receiving care or other health-related services.
Patient
Path
Patient
Id
Patient
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Demographics and other administrative information about an individual or animal receiving care or other health-related services.
Comment
Constraint
dom-2 [error]
If the resource is contained in another resource, it SHALL NOT contain nested Resources
dom-3 [error]
If the resource is contained in another resource, it SHALL be referred to from elsewhere in the resource or SHALL refer to the containing resource
dom-4 [error]
If a resource is contained in another resource, it SHALL NOT have a meta.versionId or a meta.lastUpdated
dom-5 [error]
If a resource is contained in another resource, it SHALL NOT have a security label
dom-6 [warning]
A resource should have narrative for robust management
Path
Patient.identifier
Id
Patient.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
An identifier for this patient.
Comment
Requirements
Patients are almost always assigned specific numerical identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.use
Id
Identifier.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this identifier.
Comment
Applications can assume that an identifier is permanent unless it explicitly says that it is temporary.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate identifier for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of identifiers.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Identifies the purpose for this identifier, if known .
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type
Id
Identifier.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A coded type for the identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
Comment
This element deals only with general categories of identifiers. It SHOULD not be used for codes that correspond 1..1 with the Identifier.system. Some identifiers may fall into multiple categories due to common usage. Where the system is known, a type is unnecessary because the type is always part of the system definition. However systems often need to handle identifiers where the system is not known. There is not a 1:1 relationship between type and system, since many different systems have the same type.
Requirements
Allows users to make use of identifiers when the identifier system is not known.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
A coded type for an identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding
Id
CodeableConcept.coding
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A reference to a code defined by a terminology system.
Comment
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 labeled as UserSelected = true.
Requirements
Allows for alternative encodings within a code system, and translations to other code systems.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.system
Id
Coding.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The identification of the code system that defines the meaning of the symbol in the code.
Comment
The URI may be an OID (urn:oid:...) or a UUID (urn:uuid:...). OIDs and UUIDs SHALL be references to the HL7 OID registry. Otherwise, the URI should come from HL7's list of FHIR defined special URIs or it should reference to some definition that establishes the system clearly and unambiguously.
Requirements
Need to be unambiguous about the source of the definition of the symbol.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.version
Id
Coding.version
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The version of the code system which was used when choosing this code. Note that a well-maintained code system does not need the version reported, because the meaning of codes is consistent across versions. However this cannot consistently be assured, and when the meaning is not guaranteed to be consistent, the version SHOULD be exchanged.
Comment
Where the terminology does not clearly define what string should be used to identify code system versions, the recommendation is to use the date (expressed in FHIR date format) on which that version was officially published as the version date.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.code
Id
Coding.code
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A symbol in syntax defined by the system. The symbol may be a predefined code or an expression in a syntax defined by the coding system (e.g. post-coordination).
Comment
Requirements
Need to refer to a particular code in the system.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.display
Id
Coding.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A representation of the meaning of the code in the system, following the rules of the system.
Comment
Requirements
Need to be able to carry a human-readable meaning of the code for readers that do not know the system.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.userSelected
Id
Coding.userSelected
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates that this coding was chosen by a user directly - e.g. off a pick list of available items (codes or displays).
Comment
Amongst a set of alternatives, a directly chosen code is the most appropriate starting point for new translations. There is some ambiguity about what exactly 'directly chosen' implies, and trading partner agreement may be needed to clarify the use of this element and its consequences more completely.
Requirements
This has been identified as a clinical safety criterium - that this exact system/code pair was chosen explicitly, rather than inferred by the system based on some rules or language processing.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.system
Id
Identifier.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Establishes the namespace for the value - that is, a URL that describes a set values that are unique.
Comment
Identifier.system is always case sensitive.
Requirements
There are many sets of identifiers. To perform matching of two identifiers, we need to know what set we're dealing with. The system identifies a particular set of unique identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.value
Id
Identifier.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.
Comment
If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the [Rendered Value extension](extension-rendered-value.html). Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.period
Id
Identifier.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period during which identifier is/was valid for use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner
Id
Identifier.assigner
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that issued/manages the identifier.
Comment
The Identifier.assigner may omit the .reference element and only contain a .display element reflecting the name or other textual information about the assigning organization.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.use
Id
Identifier.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this identifier.
Comment
Applications can assume that an identifier is permanent unless it explicitly says that it is temporary.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate identifier for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of identifiers.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Identifies the purpose for this identifier, if known .
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type
Id
Identifier.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A coded type for the identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
Comment
This element deals only with general categories of identifiers. It SHOULD not be used for codes that correspond 1..1 with the Identifier.system. Some identifiers may fall into multiple categories due to common usage. Where the system is known, a type is unnecessary because the type is always part of the system definition. However systems often need to handle identifiers where the system is not known. There is not a 1:1 relationship between type and system, since many different systems have the same type.
Requirements
Allows users to make use of identifiers when the identifier system is not known.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
A coded type for an identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.system
Id
Identifier.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Establishes the namespace for the value - that is, a URL that describes a set values that are unique.
Comment
Identifier.system is always case sensitive.
Requirements
There are many sets of identifiers. To perform matching of two identifiers, we need to know what set we're dealing with. The system identifies a particular set of unique identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.value
Id
Identifier.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.
Comment
If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the [Rendered Value extension](extension-rendered-value.html). Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period
Id
Identifier.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period during which identifier is/was valid for use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner
Id
Identifier.assigner
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that issued/manages the identifier.
Comment
The Identifier.assigner may omit the .reference element and only contain a .display element reflecting the name or other textual information about the assigning organization.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.active
Id
Patient.active
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Whether this patient record is in active use.
Many systems use this property to mark as non-current patients, such as those that have not been seen for a period of time based on an organization's business rules.
It is often used to filter patient lists to exclude inactive patients
Deceased patients may also be marked as inactive for the same reasons, but may be active for some time after death.
Comment
If a record is inactive, and linked to an active record, then future patient/record updates should occur on the other patient.
Requirements
Need to be able to mark a patient record as not to be used because it was created in error.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name
Id
Patient.name
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A name associated with the individual.
Comment
A patient may have multiple names with different uses or applicable periods. For animals, the name is a "HumanName" in the sense that is assigned and used by humans and has the same patterns.
Requirements
Need to be able to track the patient by multiple names. Examples are your official name and a partner name.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.use
Id
HumanName.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Identifies the purpose for this name.
Comment
Applications can assume that a name is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate name for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of names.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The use of a human name.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.family
Id
HumanName.family
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The part of a name that links to the genealogy. In some cultures (e.g. Eritrea) the family name of a son is the first name of his father.
Comment
Family Name may be decomposed into specific parts using extensions (de, nl, es related cultures).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.given
Id
HumanName.given
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Given name.
Comment
If only initials are recorded, they may be used in place of the full name parts. Initials may be separated into multiple given names but often aren't due to paractical limitations. This element is not called "first name" since given names do not always come first.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.prefix
Id
HumanName.prefix
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Part of the name that is acquired as a title due to academic, legal, employment or nobility status, etc. and that appears at the start of the name.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.suffix
Id
HumanName.suffix
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Part of the name that is acquired as a title due to academic, legal, employment or nobility status, etc. and that appears at the end of the name.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.period
Id
HumanName.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates the period of time when this name was valid for the named person.
Comment
Requirements
Allows names to be placed in historical context.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.name.HumanName.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.telecom
Id
Patient.telecom
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A contact detail (e.g. a telephone number or an email address) by which the individual may be contacted.
Comment
A Patient 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. The address might not go directly to the individual, but may reach another party that is able to proxy for the patient (i.e. home phone, or pet owner's phone).
Requirements
People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.system
Id
ContactPoint.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Telecommunications form for contact point - what communications system is required to make use of the contact.
Comment
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Telecommunications form for contact point.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
cpt-2
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.value
Id
ContactPoint.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The actual contact point details, in a form that is meaningful to the designated communication system (i.e. phone number or email address).
Comment
Additional text data such as phone extension numbers, or notes about use of the contact are sometimes included in the value.
Requirements
Need to support legacy numbers that are not in a tightly controlled format.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.use
Id
ContactPoint.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Identifies the purpose for the contact point.
Comment
Applications can assume that a contact is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.
Requirements
Need to track the way a person uses this contact, so a user can choose which is appropriate for their purpose.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Use of contact point.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.rank
Id
ContactPoint.rank
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Specifies a preferred order in which to use a set of contacts. ContactPoints with lower rank values are more preferred than those with higher rank values.
Comment
Note that rank does not necessarily follow the order in which the contacts are represented in the instance.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.period
Id
ContactPoint.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period when the contact point was/is in use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.telecom.ContactPoint.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.gender
Id
Patient.gender
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Administrative Gender - the gender that the patient is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes.
Comment
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 male and female, though the vast majority of systems and contexts only support male and female. Systems providing decision support or enforcing business rules should ideally do this on the basis of Observations dealing with the specific sex or gender aspect of interest (anatomical, chromosomal, social, etc.) However, because these observations are infrequently recorded, defaulting to the administrative gender is common practice. Where such defaulting occurs, rule enforcement should allow for the variation between administrative and biological, chromosomal and other gender aspects. For example, an alert about a hysterectomy on a male should be handled as a warning or overridable error, not a "hard" error. See the Patient Gender and Sex section for additional information about communicating patient gender and sex.
Requirements
Needed for identification of the individual, in combination with (at least) name and birth date.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The gender of a person used for administrative purposes.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.birthDate
Id
Patient.birthDate
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The date of birth for the individual.
Comment
At least an estimated year should be provided as a guess if the real DOB is unknown There is a standard extension "patient-birthTime" available that should be used where Time is required (such as in maternity/infant care systems).
Requirements
Age of the individual drives many clinical processes.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.deceased[x]
Id
Patient.deceased[x]
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates if the individual is deceased or not.
Comment
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.
Requirements
The fact that a patient is deceased influences the clinical process. Also, in human communication and relation management it is necessary to know whether the person is alive.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address
Id
Patient.address
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
An address for the individual.
Comment
Patient may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods.
Requirements
May need to keep track of patient addresses for contacting, billing or reporting requirements and also to help with identification.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.use
Id
Address.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this address.
Comment
Applications can assume that an address is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.
Requirements
Allows an appropriate address to be chosen from a list of many.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The use of an address.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.type
Id
Address.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Distinguishes between physical addresses (those you can visit) and mailing addresses (e.g. PO Boxes and care-of addresses). Most addresses are both.
Comment
The definition of Address states that "address is intended to describe postal addresses, not physical locations". However, many applications track whether an address has a dual purpose of being a location that can be visited as well as being a valid delivery destination, and Postal addresses are often used as proxies for physical locations (also see the [Location](location.html#) resource).
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The type of an address (physical / postal).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.line
Id
Address.line
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
This component contains the house number, apartment number, street name, street direction, P.O. Box number, delivery hints, and similar address information.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.city
Id
Address.city
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The name of the city, town, suburb, village or other community or delivery center.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.district
Id
Address.district
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The name of the administrative area (county).
Comment
District is sometimes known as county, but in some regions 'county' is used in place of city (municipality), so county name should be conveyed in city instead.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.state
Id
Address.state
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Sub-unit of a country with limited sovereignty in a federally organized country. A code may be used if codes are in common use (e.g. US 2 letter state codes).
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.postalCode
Id
Address.postalCode
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A postal code designating a region defined by the postal service.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.country
Id
Address.country
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Country - a nation as commonly understood or generally accepted.
Comment
ISO 3166 3 letter codes can be used in place of a human readable country name.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.period
Id
Address.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period when address was/is in use.
Comment
Requirements
Allows addresses to be placed in historical context.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.address.Address.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.address.Address.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.maritalStatus
Id
Patient.maritalStatus
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
This field contains a patient's most recent marital (civil) status.
Comment
Requirements
Most, if not all systems capture it.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
The domestic partnership status of a person.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.maritalStatus.CodeableConcept.coding
Id
CodeableConcept.coding
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A reference to a code defined by a terminology system.
Comment
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 labeled as UserSelected = true.
Requirements
Allows for alternative encodings within a code system, and translations to other code systems.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.maritalStatus.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.system
Id
Coding.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The identification of the code system that defines the meaning of the symbol in the code.
Comment
The URI may be an OID (urn:oid:...) or a UUID (urn:uuid:...). OIDs and UUIDs SHALL be references to the HL7 OID registry. Otherwise, the URI should come from HL7's list of FHIR defined special URIs or it should reference to some definition that establishes the system clearly and unambiguously.
Requirements
Need to be unambiguous about the source of the definition of the symbol.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.maritalStatus.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.version
Id
Coding.version
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The version of the code system which was used when choosing this code. Note that a well-maintained code system does not need the version reported, because the meaning of codes is consistent across versions. However this cannot consistently be assured, and when the meaning is not guaranteed to be consistent, the version SHOULD be exchanged.
Comment
Where the terminology does not clearly define what string should be used to identify code system versions, the recommendation is to use the date (expressed in FHIR date format) on which that version was officially published as the version date.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.maritalStatus.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.code
Id
Coding.code
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A symbol in syntax defined by the system. The symbol may be a predefined code or an expression in a syntax defined by the coding system (e.g. post-coordination).
Comment
Requirements
Need to refer to a particular code in the system.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.maritalStatus.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.display
Id
Coding.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A representation of the meaning of the code in the system, following the rules of the system.
Comment
Requirements
Need to be able to carry a human-readable meaning of the code for readers that do not know the system.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.maritalStatus.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.userSelected
Id
Coding.userSelected
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates that this coding was chosen by a user directly - e.g. off a pick list of available items (codes or displays).
Comment
Amongst a set of alternatives, a directly chosen code is the most appropriate starting point for new translations. There is some ambiguity about what exactly 'directly chosen' implies, and trading partner agreement may be needed to clarify the use of this element and its consequences more completely.
Requirements
This has been identified as a clinical safety criterium - that this exact system/code pair was chosen explicitly, rather than inferred by the system based on some rules or language processing.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.multipleBirth[x]
Id
Patient.multipleBirth[x]
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates whether the patient is part of a multiple (boolean) or indicates the actual birth order (integer).
Comment
Where the valueInteger is provided, the number is the birth number in the sequence. E.g. The middle birth in triplets would be valueInteger=2 and the third born would have valueInteger=3 If a boolean value was provided for this triplets example, then all 3 patient records would have valueBoolean=true (the ordering is not indicated).
Requirements
For disambiguation of multiple-birth children, especially relevant where the care provider doesn't meet the patient, such as labs.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo
Id
Patient.photo
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Image of the patient.
Comment
Guidelines:
* Use id photos, not clinical photos.
* Limit dimensions to thumbnail.
* Keep byte count low to ease resource updates.
Requirements
Many EHR systems have the capability to capture an image of the patient. Fits with newer social media usage too.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.contentType
Id
Attachment.contentType
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Identifies the type of the data in the attachment and allows a method to be chosen to interpret or render the data. Includes mime type parameters such as charset where appropriate.
Comment
Requirements
Processors of the data need to be able to know how to interpret the data.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The mime type of an attachment. Any valid mime type is allowed.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.data
Id
Attachment.data
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The actual data of the attachment - a sequence of bytes, base64 encoded.
Comment
The base64-encoded data SHALL be expressed in the same character set as the base resource XML or JSON.
Requirements
The data needs to able to be transmitted inline.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.url
Id
Attachment.url
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A location where the data can be accessed.
Comment
If both data and url are provided, the url SHALL point to the same content as the data contains. Urls may be relative references or may reference transient locations such as a wrapping envelope using cid: though this has ramifications for using signatures. Relative URLs are interpreted relative to the service url, like a resource reference, rather than relative to the resource itself. If a URL is provided, it SHALL resolve to actual data.
Requirements
The data needs to be transmitted by reference.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.size
Id
Attachment.size
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The number of bytes of data that make up this attachment (before base64 encoding, if that is done).
Comment
The number of bytes is redundant if the data is provided as a base64binary, but is useful if the data is provided as a url reference.
Requirements
Representing the size allows applications to determine whether they should fetch the content automatically in advance, or refuse to fetch it at all.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.hash
Id
Attachment.hash
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The calculated hash of the data using SHA-1. Represented using base64.
Comment
The hash is calculated on the data prior to base64 encoding, if the data is based64 encoded. The hash is not intended to support digital signatures. Where protection against malicious threats a digital signature should be considered, see [Provenance.signature](provenance-definitions.html#Provenance.signature) for mechanism to protect a resource with a digital signature.
Requirements
Included so that applications can verify that the contents of a location have not changed due to technical failures (e.g., storage rot, transport glitch, incorrect version).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.title
Id
Attachment.title
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A label or set of text to display in place of the data.
Comment
Requirements
Applications need a label to display to a human user in place of the actual data if the data cannot be rendered or perceived by the viewer.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.photo.Attachment.creation
Id
Attachment.creation
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The date that the attachment was first created.
Comment
Requirements
This is often tracked as an integrity issue for use of the attachment.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact
Id
Patient.contact
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A contact party (e.g. guardian, partner, friend) for the patient.
Comment
Contact covers all kinds of contact parties: family members, business contacts, guardians, caregivers. Not applicable to register pedigree and family ties beyond use of having contact.
Requirements
Need to track people you can contact about the patient.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
pat-1 [error]
SHALL at least contain a contact's details or a reference to an organization
Path
Patient.contact.relationship
Id
Patient.contact.relationship
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
The nature of the relationship between the patient and the contact person.
Comment
Requirements
Used to determine which contact person is the most relevant to approach, depending on circumstances.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
The nature of the relationship between a patient and a contact person for that patient.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.relationship.CodeableConcept.coding
Id
CodeableConcept.coding
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A reference to a code defined by a terminology system.
Comment
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 labeled as UserSelected = true.
Requirements
Allows for alternative encodings within a code system, and translations to other code systems.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.relationship.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.system
Id
Coding.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The identification of the code system that defines the meaning of the symbol in the code.
Comment
The URI may be an OID (urn:oid:...) or a UUID (urn:uuid:...). OIDs and UUIDs SHALL be references to the HL7 OID registry. Otherwise, the URI should come from HL7's list of FHIR defined special URIs or it should reference to some definition that establishes the system clearly and unambiguously.
Requirements
Need to be unambiguous about the source of the definition of the symbol.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.relationship.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.version
Id
Coding.version
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The version of the code system which was used when choosing this code. Note that a well-maintained code system does not need the version reported, because the meaning of codes is consistent across versions. However this cannot consistently be assured, and when the meaning is not guaranteed to be consistent, the version SHOULD be exchanged.
Comment
Where the terminology does not clearly define what string should be used to identify code system versions, the recommendation is to use the date (expressed in FHIR date format) on which that version was officially published as the version date.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.relationship.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.code
Id
Coding.code
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A symbol in syntax defined by the system. The symbol may be a predefined code or an expression in a syntax defined by the coding system (e.g. post-coordination).
Comment
Requirements
Need to refer to a particular code in the system.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.relationship.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.display
Id
Coding.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A representation of the meaning of the code in the system, following the rules of the system.
Comment
Requirements
Need to be able to carry a human-readable meaning of the code for readers that do not know the system.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.relationship.CodeableConcept.coding.Coding.userSelected
Id
Coding.userSelected
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates that this coding was chosen by a user directly - e.g. off a pick list of available items (codes or displays).
Comment
Amongst a set of alternatives, a directly chosen code is the most appropriate starting point for new translations. There is some ambiguity about what exactly 'directly chosen' implies, and trading partner agreement may be needed to clarify the use of this element and its consequences more completely.
Requirements
This has been identified as a clinical safety criterium - that this exact system/code pair was chosen explicitly, rather than inferred by the system based on some rules or language processing.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name
Id
Patient.contact.name
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A name associated with the contact person.
Comment
Requirements
Contact persons need to be identified by name, but it is uncommon to need details about multiple other names for that contact person.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.use
Id
HumanName.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Identifies the purpose for this name.
Comment
Applications can assume that a name is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate name for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of names.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The use of a human name.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.family
Id
HumanName.family
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The part of a name that links to the genealogy. In some cultures (e.g. Eritrea) the family name of a son is the first name of his father.
Comment
Family Name may be decomposed into specific parts using extensions (de, nl, es related cultures).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.given
Id
HumanName.given
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Given name.
Comment
If only initials are recorded, they may be used in place of the full name parts. Initials may be separated into multiple given names but often aren't due to paractical limitations. This element is not called "first name" since given names do not always come first.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.prefix
Id
HumanName.prefix
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Part of the name that is acquired as a title due to academic, legal, employment or nobility status, etc. and that appears at the start of the name.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.suffix
Id
HumanName.suffix
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Part of the name that is acquired as a title due to academic, legal, employment or nobility status, etc. and that appears at the end of the name.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.period
Id
HumanName.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates the period of time when this name was valid for the named person.
Comment
Requirements
Allows names to be placed in historical context.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.name.HumanName.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.telecom
Id
Patient.contact.telecom
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A contact detail for the person, e.g. a telephone number or an email address.
Comment
Contact 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.
Requirements
People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.system
Id
ContactPoint.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Telecommunications form for contact point - what communications system is required to make use of the contact.
Comment
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Telecommunications form for contact point.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
cpt-2
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.value
Id
ContactPoint.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The actual contact point details, in a form that is meaningful to the designated communication system (i.e. phone number or email address).
Comment
Additional text data such as phone extension numbers, or notes about use of the contact are sometimes included in the value.
Requirements
Need to support legacy numbers that are not in a tightly controlled format.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.use
Id
ContactPoint.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Identifies the purpose for the contact point.
Comment
Applications can assume that a contact is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.
Requirements
Need to track the way a person uses this contact, so a user can choose which is appropriate for their purpose.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Use of contact point.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.rank
Id
ContactPoint.rank
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Specifies a preferred order in which to use a set of contacts. ContactPoints with lower rank values are more preferred than those with higher rank values.
Comment
Note that rank does not necessarily follow the order in which the contacts are represented in the instance.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.period
Id
ContactPoint.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period when the contact point was/is in use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.telecom.ContactPoint.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.address
Id
Patient.contact.address
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Address for the contact person.
Comment
Requirements
Need to keep track where the contact person can be contacted per postal mail or visited.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.use
Id
Address.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this address.
Comment
Applications can assume that an address is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.
Requirements
Allows an appropriate address to be chosen from a list of many.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The use of an address.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.type
Id
Address.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Distinguishes between physical addresses (those you can visit) and mailing addresses (e.g. PO Boxes and care-of addresses). Most addresses are both.
Comment
The definition of Address states that "address is intended to describe postal addresses, not physical locations". However, many applications track whether an address has a dual purpose of being a location that can be visited as well as being a valid delivery destination, and Postal addresses are often used as proxies for physical locations (also see the [Location](location.html#) resource).
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The type of an address (physical / postal).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.line
Id
Address.line
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
This component contains the house number, apartment number, street name, street direction, P.O. Box number, delivery hints, and similar address information.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.city
Id
Address.city
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The name of the city, town, suburb, village or other community or delivery center.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.district
Id
Address.district
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The name of the administrative area (county).
Comment
District is sometimes known as county, but in some regions 'county' is used in place of city (municipality), so county name should be conveyed in city instead.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.state
Id
Address.state
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Sub-unit of a country with limited sovereignty in a federally organized country. A code may be used if codes are in common use (e.g. US 2 letter state codes).
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.postalCode
Id
Address.postalCode
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A postal code designating a region defined by the postal service.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.country
Id
Address.country
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Country - a nation as commonly understood or generally accepted.
Comment
ISO 3166 3 letter codes can be used in place of a human readable country name.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.period
Id
Address.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period when address was/is in use.
Comment
Requirements
Allows addresses to be placed in historical context.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.address.Address.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.gender
Id
Patient.contact.gender
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Administrative Gender - the gender that the contact person is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes.
Comment
Requirements
Needed to address the person correctly.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The gender of a person used for administrative purposes.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization
Id
Patient.contact.organization
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization on behalf of which the contact is acting or for which the contact is working.
Comment
Requirements
For guardians or business related contacts, the organization is relevant.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
pat-1
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.use
Id
Identifier.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this identifier.
Comment
Applications can assume that an identifier is permanent unless it explicitly says that it is temporary.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate identifier for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of identifiers.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Identifies the purpose for this identifier, if known .
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type
Id
Identifier.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A coded type for the identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
Comment
This element deals only with general categories of identifiers. It SHOULD not be used for codes that correspond 1..1 with the Identifier.system. Some identifiers may fall into multiple categories due to common usage. Where the system is known, a type is unnecessary because the type is always part of the system definition. However systems often need to handle identifiers where the system is not known. There is not a 1:1 relationship between type and system, since many different systems have the same type.
Requirements
Allows users to make use of identifiers when the identifier system is not known.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
A coded type for an identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.system
Id
Identifier.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Establishes the namespace for the value - that is, a URL that describes a set values that are unique.
Comment
Identifier.system is always case sensitive.
Requirements
There are many sets of identifiers. To perform matching of two identifiers, we need to know what set we're dealing with. The system identifies a particular set of unique identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.value
Id
Identifier.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.
Comment
If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the [Rendered Value extension](extension-rendered-value.html). Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period
Id
Identifier.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period during which identifier is/was valid for use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner
Id
Identifier.assigner
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that issued/manages the identifier.
Comment
The Identifier.assigner may omit the .reference element and only contain a .display element reflecting the name or other textual information about the assigning organization.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.organization.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
period
The period during which this contact person or organization is valid to be contacted relating to this patient
Path
Patient.contact.period
Id
Patient.contact.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The period during which this contact person or organization is valid to be contacted relating to this patient.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.contact.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.contact.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
communication
A language which may be used to communicate with the patient about his or her health
Path
Patient.communication
Id
Patient.communication
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A language which may be used to communicate with the patient about his or her health.
Comment
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 Patient.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.
Requirements
If a patient does not speak the local language, interpreters may be required, so languages spoken and proficiency are important things to keep track of both for patient and other persons of interest.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.communication.preferred
Id
Patient.communication.preferred
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Indicates whether or not the patient prefers this language (over other languages he masters up a certain level).
Comment
This language is specifically identified for communicating healthcare information.
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.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner
Id
Patient.generalPractitioner
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Patient's nominated care provider.
Comment
This may be the primary care provider (in a GP context), or it may be a patient nominated care manager in a community/disability setting, or even organization that will provide people to perform the care provider roles. It is not to be used to record Care Teams, these should be in a CareTeam resource that may be linked to the CarePlan or EpisodeOfCare resources.
Multiple GPs may be recorded against the patient for various reasons, such as a student that has his home GP listed along with the GP at university during the school semesters, or a "fly-in/fly-out" worker that has the onsite GP also included with his home GP to remain aware of medical issues.
Jurisdictions may decide that they can profile this down to 1 if desired, or 1 per type.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.use
Id
Identifier.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this identifier.
Comment
Applications can assume that an identifier is permanent unless it explicitly says that it is temporary.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate identifier for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of identifiers.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Identifies the purpose for this identifier, if known .
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type
Id
Identifier.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A coded type for the identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
Comment
This element deals only with general categories of identifiers. It SHOULD not be used for codes that correspond 1..1 with the Identifier.system. Some identifiers may fall into multiple categories due to common usage. Where the system is known, a type is unnecessary because the type is always part of the system definition. However systems often need to handle identifiers where the system is not known. There is not a 1:1 relationship between type and system, since many different systems have the same type.
Requirements
Allows users to make use of identifiers when the identifier system is not known.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
A coded type for an identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding
Id
CodeableConcept.coding
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A reference to a code defined by a terminology system.
Comment
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 labeled as UserSelected = true.
Requirements
Allows for alternative encodings within a code system, and translations to other code systems.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.system
Id
Identifier.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Establishes the namespace for the value - that is, a URL that describes a set values that are unique.
Comment
Identifier.system is always case sensitive.
Requirements
There are many sets of identifiers. To perform matching of two identifiers, we need to know what set we're dealing with. The system identifies a particular set of unique identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.value
Id
Identifier.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.
Comment
If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the [Rendered Value extension](extension-rendered-value.html). Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period
Id
Identifier.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period during which identifier is/was valid for use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner
Id
Identifier.assigner
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that issued/manages the identifier.
Comment
The Identifier.assigner may omit the .reference element and only contain a .display element reflecting the name or other textual information about the assigning organization.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.generalPractitioner.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization
Id
Patient.managingOrganization
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that is the custodian of the patient record.
Comment
There is only one managing organization for a specific patient record. Other organizations will have their own Patient record, and may use the Link property to join the records together (or a Person resource which can include confidence ratings for the association).
Requirements
Need to know who recognizes this patient record, manages and updates it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.use
Id
Identifier.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this identifier.
Comment
Applications can assume that an identifier is permanent unless it explicitly says that it is temporary.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate identifier for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of identifiers.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Identifies the purpose for this identifier, if known .
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type
Id
Identifier.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A coded type for the identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
Comment
This element deals only with general categories of identifiers. It SHOULD not be used for codes that correspond 1..1 with the Identifier.system. Some identifiers may fall into multiple categories due to common usage. Where the system is known, a type is unnecessary because the type is always part of the system definition. However systems often need to handle identifiers where the system is not known. There is not a 1:1 relationship between type and system, since many different systems have the same type.
Requirements
Allows users to make use of identifiers when the identifier system is not known.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
A coded type for an identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type.CodeableConcept.coding
Id
CodeableConcept.coding
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
A reference to a code defined by a terminology system.
Comment
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 labeled as UserSelected = true.
Requirements
Allows for alternative encodings within a code system, and translations to other code systems.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.system
Id
Identifier.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Establishes the namespace for the value - that is, a URL that describes a set values that are unique.
Comment
Identifier.system is always case sensitive.
Requirements
There are many sets of identifiers. To perform matching of two identifiers, we need to know what set we're dealing with. The system identifies a particular set of unique identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.value
Id
Identifier.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.
Comment
If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the [Rendered Value extension](extension-rendered-value.html). Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period
Id
Identifier.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period during which identifier is/was valid for use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period.Period.start
Id
Period.start
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive.
Comment
If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period.Period.end
Id
Period.end
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time.
Comment
The high value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
per-1
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner
Id
Identifier.assigner
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that issued/manages the identifier.
Comment
The Identifier.assigner may omit the .reference element and only contain a .display element reflecting the name or other textual information about the assigning organization.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.managingOrganization.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link
Id
Patient.link
Type
Cardinality
0 - *
Definition
Link to another patient resource that concerns the same actual patient.
Comment
There is no assumption that linked patient records have mutual links.
Requirements
There are multiple use cases:
* Duplicate patient records due to the clerical errors associated with the difficulties of identifying humans consistently, and
* Distribution of patient information across multiple servers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other
Id
Patient.link.other
Type
Cardinality
1 - 1
Definition
The other patient resource that the link refers to.
Comment
Referencing a RelatedPerson here removes the need to use a Person record to associate a Patient and RelatedPerson as the same individual.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.reference
Id
Reference.reference
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A reference to a location at which the other resource is found. The reference may be a relative reference, in which case it is relative to the service base URL, or an absolute URL that resolves to the location where the resource is found. The reference may be version specific or not. If the reference is not to a FHIR RESTful server, then it should be assumed to be version specific. Internal fragment references (start with '#') refer to contained resources.
Comment
Using absolute URLs provides a stable scalable approach suitable for a cloud/web context, while using relative/logical references provides a flexible approach suitable for use when trading across closed eco-system boundaries. Absolute URLs do not need to point to a FHIR RESTful server, though this is the preferred approach. If the URL conforms to the structure "/[type]/[id]" then it should be assumed that the reference is to a FHIR RESTful server.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Condition
ref-1
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.type
Id
Reference.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The expected type of the target of the reference. If both Reference.type and Reference.reference are populated and Reference.reference is a FHIR URL, both SHALL be consistent.
The type is the Canonical URL of Resource Definition that is the type this reference refers to. References are URLs that are relative to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/ e.g. "Patient" is a reference to http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient. Absolute URLs are only allowed for logical models (and can only be used in references in logical models, not resources).
Comment
This element is used to indicate the type of the target of the reference. This may be used which ever of the other elements are populated (or not). In some cases, the type of the target may be determined by inspection of the reference (e.g. a RESTful URL) or by resolving the target of the reference; if both the type and a reference is provided, the reference SHALL resolve to a resource of the same type as that specified.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
Aa resource (or, for logical models, the URI of the logical model).
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier
Id
Reference.identifier
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
An identifier for the target resource. This is used when there is no way to reference the other resource directly, either because the entity it represents is not available through a FHIR server, or because there is no way for the author of the resource to convert a known identifier to an actual location. There is no requirement that a Reference.identifier point to something that is actually exposed as a FHIR instance, but it SHALL point to a business concept that would be expected to be exposed as a FHIR instance, and that instance would need to be of a FHIR resource type allowed by the reference.
Comment
When an identifier is provided in place of a reference, any system processing the reference will only be able to resolve the identifier to a reference if it understands the business context in which the identifier is used. Sometimes this is global (e.g. a national identifier) but often it is not. For this reason, none of the useful mechanisms described for working with references (e.g. chaining, includes) are possible, nor should servers be expected to be able resolve the reference. Servers may accept an identifier based reference untouched, resolve it, and/or reject it - see CapabilityStatement.rest.resource.referencePolicy.
When both an identifier and a literal reference are provided, the literal reference is preferred. Applications processing the resource are allowed - but not required - to check that the identifier matches the literal reference
Applications converting a logical reference to a literal reference may choose to leave the logical reference present, or remove it.
Reference is intended to point to a structure that can potentially be expressed as a FHIR resource, though there is no need for it to exist as an actual FHIR resource instance - except in as much as an application wishes to actual find the target of the reference. The content referred to be the identifier must meet the logical constraints implied by any limitations on what resource types are permitted for the reference. For example, it would not be legitimate to send the identifier for a drug prescription if the type were Reference(Observation|DiagnosticReport). One of the use-cases for Reference.identifier is the situation where no FHIR representation exists (where the type is Reference (Any).
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier.Identifier.use
Id
Identifier.use
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The purpose of this identifier.
Comment
Applications can assume that an identifier is permanent unless it explicitly says that it is temporary.
Requirements
Allows the appropriate identifier for a particular context of use to be selected from among a set of identifiers.
Binding
Strength
required
Description
Identifies the purpose for this identifier, if known .
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier.Identifier.type
Id
Identifier.type
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
A coded type for the identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
Comment
This element deals only with general categories of identifiers. It SHOULD not be used for codes that correspond 1..1 with the Identifier.system. Some identifiers may fall into multiple categories due to common usage. Where the system is known, a type is unnecessary because the type is always part of the system definition. However systems often need to handle identifiers where the system is not known. There is not a 1:1 relationship between type and system, since many different systems have the same type.
Requirements
Allows users to make use of identifiers when the identifier system is not known.
Binding
Strength
extensible
Description
A coded type for an identifier that can be used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier.Identifier.system
Id
Identifier.system
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Establishes the namespace for the value - that is, a URL that describes a set values that are unique.
Comment
Identifier.system is always case sensitive.
Requirements
There are many sets of identifiers. To perform matching of two identifiers, we need to know what set we're dealing with. The system identifies a particular set of unique identifiers.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier.Identifier.value
Id
Identifier.value
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.
Comment
If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the [Rendered Value extension](extension-rendered-value.html). Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier.Identifier.period
Id
Identifier.period
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Time period during which identifier is/was valid for use.
Comment
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.identifier.Identifier.assigner
Id
Identifier.assigner
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Organization that issued/manages the identifier.
Comment
The Identifier.assigner may omit the .reference element and only contain a .display element reflecting the name or other textual information about the assigning organization.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.other.Reference.display
Id
Reference.display
Type
Cardinality
0 - 1
Definition
Plain text narrative that identifies the resource in addition to the resource reference.
Comment
This is generally not the same as the Resource.text of the referenced resource. The purpose is to identify what's being referenced, not to fully describe it.
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children
Path
Patient.link.type
Id
Patient.link.type
Type
Cardinality
1 - 1
Definition
The type of link between this patient resource and another patient resource.
Comment
Binding
Strength
required
Description
The type of link between this patient resource and another patient resource.
ValueSet
Constraint
ele-1 [error]
All FHIR elements must have a @value or children