---
type: "resource-definitions"
title: "RelatedPerson Definitions"
resource: "RelatedPerson"
---

# RelatedPerson Definitions

<a id="RelatedPerson"></a>

## RelatedPerson
A person that is related to a patient, but who is not a direct target of care

**Definition:** Information about a person that is involved in a patient's health or the care for a patient, but who is not the primary target of healthcare.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Mappings:** rim=role; interface=ParticipantLiving; w5=administrative.individual


<a id="RelatedPerson.identifier"></a>

## RelatedPerson.identifier
A human identifier for this person

**Definition:** Identifier for a person within a particular scope.

**Comments:** RelatedPerson identifiers might not be unique across instances within a system, as a single human individual may be represented as many different RelatedPerson resources with different roles, periods, or relationships.

Systems MAY use identifier for user identities (using the type='USER'). Refer to the [Security and Privacy](administration-module.html#secpriv) section for additional guidance on representing user identities.

**Requirements:** People are known by a variety of ids. Some institutions maintain several, and most collect identifiers for exchange with other organizations concerning the patient. Examples are national person identifier and local identifier.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [Identifier](/Identifier)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** w5=FiveWs.identifier; v2=NK1-33; rim=.id; interface=Participant.identifier


<a id="RelatedPerson.active"></a>

## RelatedPerson.active
Whether this related person's record is in active use

**Definition:** Whether this related person record is in active use.

**Comments:** This element is labeled as a modifier because it may be used to mark that the resource was created in error.

**Requirements:** Need to be able to mark a related person record as not to be used, such as if it was created in error.

**Meaning if Missing:** This resource is generally assumed to be active if no value is provided for the active element

**Cardinality:** 0..1

**Type:** [boolean](/boolean)

**Summary:** true

**Is Modifier:** true (Reason: This element is labelled as a modifier because it is a status element that can indicate that a record should not be treated as valid)

**Mappings:** w5=FiveWs.status; rim=.statusCode; interface=Participant.active


<a id="RelatedPerson.patient"></a>

## RelatedPerson.patient
The patient this person is related to

**Definition:** The patient this person is related to.

**Requirements:** We need to know which patient this RelatedPerson is related to.

**Cardinality:** 1..1

**Type:** Reference([Patient](/Patient))

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** v2=PID-3; rim=scoper[classCode=PSN|ANM and determinerCode='INSTANCE']/playedRole[classCode='PAT']/id


<a id="RelatedPerson.relationship"></a>

## RelatedPerson.relationship
The personal relationship of the related person to the patient

**Definition:** The nature of the personal relationship between the related person and the patient.

**Comments:** This property is for personal relationships. Functional relationships are represented in `RelatedPerson.role`.

The directionality of the relationship is from the RelatedPerson to the Patient. For example, if the Patient is a child, and the RelatedPerson is the mother, the relationship would be PRN (parent) or MTH (mother).

**Requirements:** We need to know the personal relationship with the patient since it influences the interpretation of the information attributed to this person.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [CodeableConcept](/CodeableConcept)

**Binding:** preferred:[v3-PersonalRelationshipRoleType](/valueset-v3-PersonalRelationshipRoleType)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** w5=FiveWs.class; v2=NK1-3; rim=code


<a id="RelatedPerson.role"></a>

## RelatedPerson.role
The functional role of the related person to the patient

**Definition:** The nature of the functional relationship between the patient and the related person.

**Comments:** This property is for functional relationships. Personal relationships are represented in `RelatedPerson.relationship`.

**Requirements:** Used to determine which related person is the most relevant to approach, depending on circumstances.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [CodeableConcept](/CodeableConcept)

**Binding:** preferred:[relatedperson-relationshiptype](/valueset-relatedperson-relationshiptype)

**Summary:** true


<a id="RelatedPerson.name"></a>

## RelatedPerson.name
A name associated with the person

**Definition:** A name associated with the person.

**Requirements:** Related persons need to be identified by name, but it is uncommon to need details about multiple other names for that person.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [HumanName](/HumanName)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** v2=NK1-2; rim=name; interface=Participant.name


<a id="RelatedPerson.telecom"></a>

## RelatedPerson.telecom
A contact detail for the person

**Definition:** A contact detail for the person, e.g. a telephone number or an email address.

**Comments:** RelatedPerson 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.

DO NOT use .telecom properties to represent user identities. Refer to the [Security and Privacy](administration-module.html#secpriv) section for additional guidance on representing user identities.

**Requirements:** People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [ContactPoint](/ContactPoint)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** v2=NK1-5 / NK1-6 / NK1-40; rim=telecom; interface=ParticipantContactable.telecom


<a id="RelatedPerson.gender"></a>

## RelatedPerson.gender
male | female | other | unknown

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

**Requirements:** Needed for identification of the person, in combination with (at least) name and birth date.

**Cardinality:** 0..1

**Type:** [code](/code)

**Binding:** required:[administrative-gender](/valueset-administrative-gender)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** v2=NK1-15; rim=administrativeGender; interface=ParticipantLiving.gender


<a id="RelatedPerson.birthDate"></a>

## RelatedPerson.birthDate
The date on which the related person was born

**Definition:** The date on which the related person was born.

**Cardinality:** 0..1

**Type:** [date](/date)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** rim=player.birthTime; interface=ParticipantLiving.birthDate


<a id="RelatedPerson.address"></a>

## RelatedPerson.address
Address where the related person can be contacted or visited

**Definition:** Address where the related person can be contacted or visited.

**Requirements:** Need to keep track where the related person can be contacted per postal mail or visited.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [Address](/Address)

**Summary:** true

**Mappings:** v2=NK1-4; rim=addr; interface=ParticipantContactable.address


<a id="RelatedPerson.photo"></a>

## RelatedPerson.photo
Image of the person

**Definition:** Image of the person.

**Requirements:** Many EHR systems have the capability to capture an image of persons. Fits with newer social media usage too.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [Attachment](/Attachment)

**Mappings:** v2=OBX-5 - needs a profile; rim=player[classCode='PSN' and determinerCode='INSTANCE']/desc; interface=ParticipantLiving.photo


<a id="RelatedPerson.period"></a>

## RelatedPerson.period
Period of time that this relationship is considered valid

**Definition:** The period of time during which this relationship is or was active. If there are no dates defined, then the interval is unknown.

**Comments:** If an individual has a relationship with a patient over multiple, non-adjacent periods, there should be a distinct RelatedPerson instance for each period.  For example, if a person is a roommate for a period of time, moves out, and is later a roommate with the same person again, you would have two RelatedPerson instances.

**Cardinality:** 0..1

**Type:** [Period](/Period)

**Mappings:** w5=FiveWs.done[x]; rim=.effectiveTime


<a id="RelatedPerson.communication"></a>

## RelatedPerson.communication
A language which may be used to communicate with the related person about the patient's health

**Definition:** A language which may be used to communicate with the related person about the patient's health.

**Comments:** 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 RelatedPerson.Communication associations.   If the RelatedPerson 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 related person does not speak the local language, interpreters may be required, so languages spoken and proficiency is an important things to keep track of both for patient and other persons of interest.

**Cardinality:** 0..*

**Type:** [BackboneElement](/BackboneElement)

**Mappings:** rim=LanguageCommunication; interface=ParticipantLiving.communication


<a id="RelatedPerson.communication.language"></a>

## RelatedPerson.communication.language
The language which can be used to communicate with the related person about the patient's health

**Definition:** The language which may be used to communicate with the individual.

**Comments:** The language is commonly represented using the ISO-639-1 alpha code in lower case for the language, optionally followed by a hyphen and the ISO-3166-1 alpha code for the region in upper case.  For example, "en" for English, or "en-US" for American English versus "en-AU" for Australian English, sgn-US for American Sign Language, sgn-NL for Dutch Sign Language, etc.

Not all systems actually code this but instead have it as free text. Hence CodeableConcept instead of code as the data type.

**Requirements:** Most systems in multilingual countries will want to convey language. Not all systems actually need the regional dialect.

**Cardinality:** 1..1

**Type:** [CodeableConcept](/CodeableConcept)

**Binding:** required:[all-languages](/valueset-all-languages)

**Mappings:** rim=player[classCode=PSN|ANM and determinerCode=INSTANCE]/languageCommunication/code


<a id="RelatedPerson.communication.preferred"></a>

## RelatedPerson.communication.preferred
Language preference indicator

**Definition:** Indicates whether or not the related person prefers this language (over other languages he or she masters up a certain level).

**Comments:** 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.

**Cardinality:** 0..1

**Type:** [boolean](/boolean)

**Mappings:** rim=preferenceInd