- This version of the UK Core is a development copy.
- This contains BREAKING CHANGES as a result of the C&TA Sprint 7 Review, and STU2 Sequence ballot reconciliation.
- This version is not yet reviewed for implementation. Other versions are available on the UK Core Version History Guide
- Please follow the guidance on the Contact Us page if you need any assistance.
- A summary of changes is available on the STU3 Sequence Change Log
StructureDefinition UKCore-Practitioner
| Canonical_URL | Status | Current_Version | Last_Updated | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/StructureDefinition/UKCore-Practitioner | active | 2.4.0 | 2023-12-12 | This profile defines the UK constraints and extensions on the International FHIR resource Practitioner. |
| Profile_Purpose |
|---|
This profile allows exchange of information about all individuals who are engaged in the healthcare process and healthcare-related services as part of their formal responsibilities, is used for attribution of activities and responsibilities to these individuals. |
Detailed Descriptions
| Practitioner | |||
| Short | A person with a formal responsibility in the provisioning of healthcare or related services | ||
| Definition | A person who is directly or indirectly involved in the provisioning of healthcare. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.id | |||
| Short | Logical id of this artifact | ||
| Definition | The logical id of the resource, as used in the URL for the resource. Once assigned, this value never changes. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | string | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Comments | The only time that a resource does not have an id is when it is being submitted to the server using a create operation. | ||
| Practitioner.meta | |||
| Short | Metadata about the resource | ||
| Definition | The metadata about the resource. This is content that is maintained by the infrastructure. Changes to the content might not always be associated with version changes to the resource. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | Meta | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.implicitRules | |||
| Short | A set of rules under which this content was created | ||
| Definition | A reference to a set of rules that were followed when the resource was constructed, and which must be understood when processing the content. Often, this is a reference to an implementation guide that defines the special rules along with other profiles etc. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | uri | ||
| Modifier | True | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Comments | Asserting this rule set restricts the content to be only understood by a limited set of trading partners. This inherently limits the usefulness of the data in the long term. However, the existing health eco-system is highly fractured, and not yet ready to define, collect, and exchange data in a generally computable sense. Wherever possible, implementers and/or specification writers should avoid using this element. Often, when used, the URL is a reference to an implementation guide that defines these special rules as part of it's narrative along with other profiles, value sets, etc. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.language | |||
| Short | Language of the resource content | ||
| Definition | The base language in which the resource is written. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | code | ||
| Binding | A human language.
| ||
| Comments | Language is provided to support indexing and accessibility (typically, services such as text to speech use the language tag). The html language tag in the narrative applies to the narrative. The language tag on the resource may be used to specify the language of other presentations generated from the data in the resource. Not all the content has to be in the base language. The Resource.language should not be assumed to apply to the narrative automatically. If a language is specified, it should it also be specified on the div element in the html (see rules in HTML5 for information about the relationship between xml:lang and the html lang attribute). | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.text | |||
| Short | Text summary of the resource, for human interpretation | ||
| Definition | A human-readable narrative that contains a summary of the resource and can be used to represent the content of the resource to a human. The narrative need not encode all the structured data, but is required to contain sufficient detail to make it "clinically safe" for a human to just read the narrative. Resource definitions may define what content should be represented in the narrative to ensure clinical safety. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | Narrative | ||
| Alias | narrative, html, xhtml, display | ||
| Comments | Contained resources do not have narrative. Resources that are not contained SHOULD have a narrative. In some cases, a resource may only have text with little or no additional discrete data (as long as all minOccurs=1 elements are satisfied). This may be necessary for data from legacy systems where information is captured as a "text blob" or where text is additionally entered raw or narrated and encoded information is added later. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.contained | |||
| Short | Contained, inline Resources | ||
| Definition | These resources do not have an independent existence apart from the resource that contains them - they cannot be identified independently, and nor can they have their own independent transaction scope. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Resource | ||
| Alias | inline resources, anonymous resources, contained resources | ||
| Comments | This should never be done when the content can be identified properly, as once identification is lost, it is extremely difficult (and context dependent) to restore it again. Contained resources may have profiles and tags In their meta elements, but SHALL NOT have security labels. | ||
| Mappings |
| ||
| Practitioner.extension | |||
| Short | Additional content defined by implementations | ||
| Definition | May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Extension | ||
| Alias | extensions, user content | ||
| Comments | There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone. | ||
| Slicing | Unordered, Open, by url(Value) Extensions are always sliced by (at least) url | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.modifierExtension | |||
| Short | Extensions that cannot be ignored | ||
| Definition | May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it and/or the understanding of the containing element's descendants. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions. Modifier extensions SHALL NOT change the meaning of any elements on Resource or DomainResource (including cannot change the meaning of modifierExtension itself). | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Extension | ||
| Modifier | True | ||
| Alias | extensions, user content | ||
| Requirements | Modifier extensions allow for extensions that cannot be safely ignored to be clearly distinguished from the vast majority of extensions which can be safely ignored. This promotes interoperability by eliminating the need for implementers to prohibit the presence of extensions. For further information, see the definition of modifier extensions. | ||
| Comments | There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone. | ||
| Slicing | Unordered, Open, by url(Value) Extensions are always sliced by (at least) url | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.identifier | |||
| Short | An identifier that applies to this person in this role. | ||
| Definition | An identifier that applies to this person in this role. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Identifier | ||
| Must Support | True | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | Often, specific identities are assigned for the agent. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.active | |||
| Short | Whether this practitioner's record is in active use | ||
| Definition | Whether this practitioner's record is in active use. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | boolean | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | Need to be able to mark a practitioner record as not to be used because it was created in error. | ||
| Comments | If the practitioner is not in use by one organization, then it should mark the period on the PractitonerRole with an end date (even if they are active) as they may be active in another role. | ||
| Meaning when missing | This resource is generally assumed to be active if no value is provided for the active element | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.name | |||
| Short | The name(s) associated with the practitioner. | ||
| Definition | The name(s) associated with the practitioner. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | HumanName | ||
| Must Support | True | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | The name(s) that a Practitioner is known by. Where there are multiple, the name that the practitioner is usually known as should be used in the display. | ||
| Comments | The selection of the use property should ensure that there is a single usual name specified, and others use the nickname (alias), old, or other values as appropriate. In general, select the value to be used in the ResourceReference.display based on this:
| ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.telecom | |||
| Short | A contact detail for the practitioner (that apply to all roles). | ||
| Definition | A contact detail for the practitioner, e.g. a telephone number or an email address. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | ContactPoint | ||
| Must Support | True | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | Need to know how to reach a practitioner independent to any roles the practitioner may have. | ||
| Comments | Person may have multiple ways to be contacted with different uses or applicable periods. May need to have options for contacting the person urgently and to help with identification. These typically will have home numbers, or mobile numbers that are not role specific. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.address | |||
| Short | Address(es) of the practitioner that are not role specific (typically home address) | ||
| Definition | Address(es) of the practitioner that are not role specific (typically home address). Work addresses are not typically entered in this property as they are usually role dependent. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Address | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | The home/mailing address of the practitioner is often required for employee administration purposes, and also for some rostering services where the start point (practitioners home) can be used in calculations. | ||
| Comments | The PractitionerRole does not have an address value on it, as it is expected that the location property be used for this purpose (which has an address). | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.gender | |||
| Short | male | female | other | unknown | ||
| Definition | Administrative Gender - the gender that the person is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | code | ||
| Binding | The gender of a person used for administrative purposes. | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | Needed to address the person correctly. | ||
| Comments | Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1MB in size | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.birthDate | |||
| Short | The date on which the practitioner was born | ||
| Definition | The date of birth for the practitioner. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | date | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Requirements | Needed for identification. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.photo | |||
| Short | Image of the person | ||
| Definition | Image of the person. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Attachment | ||
| Requirements | Many EHR systems have the capability to capture an image of patients and personnel. Fits with newer social media usage too. | ||
| Comments | When providing a summary view (for example with Observation.value[x]) Attachment should be represented with a brief display text such as "Signed Procedure Consent". | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification | |||
| Short | Certification, licenses, or training pertaining to the provision of care | ||
| Definition | The official certifications, training, and licenses that authorize or otherwise pertain to the provision of care by the practitioner. For example, a medical license issued by a medical board authorizing the practitioner to practice medicine within a certian locality. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | BackboneElement | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification.id | |||
| Short | Unique id for inter-element referencing | ||
| Definition | Unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | string | ||
| Mappings |
| ||
| Practitioner.qualification.extension | |||
| Short | Additional content defined by implementations | ||
| Definition | May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Extension | ||
| Alias | extensions, user content | ||
| Comments | There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone. | ||
| Slicing | Unordered, Open, by url(Value) Extensions are always sliced by (at least) url | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification.modifierExtension | |||
| Short | Extensions that cannot be ignored even if unrecognized | ||
| Definition | May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element and that modifies the understanding of the element in which it is contained and/or the understanding of the containing element's descendants. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions. Modifier extensions SHALL NOT change the meaning of any elements on Resource or DomainResource (including cannot change the meaning of modifierExtension itself). | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Extension | ||
| Modifier | True | ||
| Summary | True | ||
| Alias | extensions, user content, modifiers | ||
| Requirements | Modifier extensions allow for extensions that cannot be safely ignored to be clearly distinguished from the vast majority of extensions which can be safely ignored. This promotes interoperability by eliminating the need for implementers to prohibit the presence of extensions. For further information, see the definition of modifier extensions. | ||
| Comments | There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification.identifier | |||
| Short | An identifier for this qualification for the practitioner | ||
| Definition | An identifier that applies to this person's qualification in this role. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | Identifier | ||
| Requirements | Often, specific identities are assigned for the qualification. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification.code | |||
| Short | Coded representation of the qualification | ||
| Definition | Coded representation of the qualification. | ||
| Cardinality | 1..1 | ||
| Type | CodeableConcept | ||
| Binding | Specific qualification the practitioner has to provide a service. | ||
| Comments | Not all terminology uses fit this general pattern. In some cases, models should not use CodeableConcept and use Coding directly and provide their own structure for managing text, codings, translations and the relationship between elements and pre- and post-coordination. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification.period | |||
| Short | Period during which the qualification is valid | ||
| Definition | Period during which the qualification is valid. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | Period | ||
| Requirements | Qualifications are often for a limited period of time, and can be revoked. | ||
| Comments | A Period specifies a range of time; the context of use will specify whether the entire range applies (e.g. "the patient was an inpatient of the hospital for this time range") or one value from the range applies (e.g. "give to the patient between these two times"). Period is not used for a duration (a measure of elapsed time). See Duration. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.qualification.issuer | |||
| Short | Organization that regulates and issues the qualification | ||
| Definition | Organization that regulates and issues the qualification. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..1 | ||
| Type | Reference(Organization) | ||
| Comments | References SHALL be a reference to an actual FHIR resource, and SHALL be resolveable (allowing for access control, temporary unavailability, etc.). Resolution can be either by retrieval from the URL, or, where applicable by resource type, by treating an absolute reference as a canonical URL and looking it up in a local registry/repository. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| Practitioner.communication | |||
| Short | A language the practitioner can use in patient communication | ||
| Definition | A language the practitioner can use in patient communication. | ||
| Cardinality | 0..* | ||
| Type | CodeableConcept | ||
| Binding | A ValueSet that identifies the language used by a person.
| ||
| Requirements | Knowing which language a practitioner speaks can help in facilitating communication with patients. | ||
| Comments | The structure aa-BB with this exact casing is one the most widely used notations for locale. However not all systems code this but instead have it as free text. Hence CodeableConcept instead of code as the data type. | ||
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 | ||
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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Table View
| Practitioner | .. | |
| Practitioner.identifier | .. | |
| Practitioner.name | .. | |
| Practitioner.telecom | .. | |
| Practitioner.communication | .. |
XML View
JSON View
Examples
| id | div |
|---|---|
| UKCore-Practitioner-ConsultantSandraGose-Example | An example to illustrate a practitioner who is a consultant |
| UKCore-Practitioner-DoctorPaulRastall-Example | An example to illustrate a practitioner who is a doctor |
| UKCore-Practitioner-PharmacistJimmyChuck-Example | An example to illustrate a pharmacist practitioner |
UK Core Extensions examples can be found on the relevant Extension page.
Feedback
Click here to:Example Usage Scenarios
The following are example usage scenarios for the UK Core Practitioner profile:
- Query for practitioner information using the query parameter identifier (
Practitioner.identifier) for a known SDS User Identifier. - Exchange practitioner information within a FHIR document or message.
Profile Specific Implementation Guidance:
Mandatory and Must Support Data Elements
The following elements are identified as MustSupport, and it is expected that consumers and suppliers SHALL support these as per the MustSupport Guidance.
| Element | Reason |
|---|---|
Practitioner.identifier | An identifier that applies to this person in this role. |
Practitioner.name | The name(s) associated with the practitioner. |
Practitioner.telecom | A contact detail for the practitioner (that apply to all roles). |
Bindings (differential)
More information about the bindings to UK Core ValueSets can be found below.
| Context | Strength | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Practitioner.communication | Required | Core-defined ValueSet All Languages |
identifier
Added links to identifier cells to make it easier to find more information.
Added General Medical Practitioner to identifier
The Practitioner.identifier can be populated using the examples given below.
| Role | Identifier | Format | System |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Medical Practitioner | General Medical Practitioner (GMP) PPD Code | Doctor Index Number prefixed with a leading character and with a check digit added. | https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/Id/gmp-number |
| Doctors | General Medical Council Information (GMC) registration number | 7 digits OR L + 6 digits. L prefix is for limited registrations. | https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/Id/gmc-number | Pharmacist | General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) registration number | 7 digit number starting with the number 2. | https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/Id/gphc-number | Nurses, Midwives, Health Visitors | Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration number | 8 character alphanumeric pin. | https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/Id/nmc-number | Other Health Care Professions (HCPs) | Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration number | Up to 6 numbers, and starts with 2 letters. For example **PH123456** | https://fhir.hl7.org.uk/Id/hcpc-number | Other (England) | Spine Directory Service (SDS) User ID | Refer to Spine Directory Service - FHIR API | NA | Other | Other identifier e.g. local ID | Implementation specific | NA |
More information about the GMC, GPhC, and NMC registration numbers can be found within the Glossary, under NHS Data Model and Dictionary.
More information about SDS can be found within the Glossary, under Spine Directory Service.
Breaking Change
The minimum cardinality ofPractitioner.identifier.system and Practitioner.identifier.valuereset from 1 in UK Core STU1 Sequence, to 0 in this release, as a result of the UK Core STU2 Sequence ballot reconciliation actions.
telecom
A contact detail (e.g. a telephone number or an email address) by which the practitioner may be contacted.
Practitioner.telecom uses the ContactPoint datatype.
gender
Administrative Gender - the gender that the practitioner is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes.
Important:
This is a FHIR required ValueSet and these values SHALL be exchanged. Implementers should map these values to any local values used.photo
A photograph relating to the practitioner. This can be included as either:
- An attachment encoded as base64Binary with a relevant MIME contentType: image/png, image/jpg or image/jpeg preferred.
Example of Practitioner.photo usage:
Table View
| Practitioner.id[0] | UKCore-Practitioner-Sn-Photo-Example |
| Practitioner.photo[0].contentType[0] | image/png |
| Practitioner.photo[0].data[0] | base64Binary |
Tree View
| Practitioner |
| id : UKCore-Practitioner-Sn-Photo-Example |
| photo |
| contentType : image/png |
| data : base64Binary |
XML View
JSON View
and/or
- URL where the data can be found.
If both are used, the URL SHALL point to the same data as that encoded in the attachment.
qualification
The practitioner's qualifications.
Example of Practitioner.qualification usage:
Table View
| Practitioner.id[0] | UKCore-Practitioner-Sn-Qualification-Example |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].identifier[0].system[0] | http://example.org/UniversityIdentifier |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].identifier[0].value[0] | 12345 |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].code[0].coding[0].system[0] | http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v2-0360/2.7 |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].code[0].coding[0].code[0] | BS |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].code[0].coding[0].display[0] | Bachelor of Science |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].code[0].text[0] | Bachelor of Science |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].period[0].start[0] | 1995 |
| Practitioner.qualification[0].issuer[0].display[0] | Example University |
Tree View
| Practitioner |
| id : UKCore-Practitioner-Sn-Qualification-Example |
| qualification |
| identifier |
| system : http://example.org/UniversityIdentifier |
| value : 12345 |
| code |
| coding |
| system : http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v2-0360/2.7 |
| code : BS |
| display : Bachelor of Science |
| text : Bachelor of Science |
| period |
| start : 1995 |
| issuer |
| display : Example University |
XML View
JSON View
communication
A language that the practitioner can use to communicate with patients about their health.
The Practitioner.communication element has a Required binding to the Core-defined ValueSet All Languages which is derived form urn:ietf:bcp:47