This document indicates the data elements and structure suited to accurately and consistently identify persons (including subjects of care), healthcare providers and healthcare organizations. The data elements names and definitions are provided in Clause 3; the full data element definitional structure is given in Clauses 5, 6 and 7. This document identifies conformance requirements in the following use cases:

• Populate and manage an index or registry. This can include the storage of a person, healthcare provider or organization within an index or registry.
• Record or share information for administrative purposes.
• Record or share information for clinical purposes.

Application of this document will increase the capacity for data access. Authorization of such access is determined by the application of legislation, organizational policies and guidelines, and professional ethics.

It is recognized that specific applications might require additional data to fulfil their purpose, such as value sets or adjustments to conformance requirements. This document provides a generic set of identifying information, which is application-independent. Implementations in different healthcare environments and national settings can require the establishment of data sub-sets, additional guidelines and rules in the use of the data elements.

The following are outside the scope of this document:

• Additional factors to be considered in providing access to distributed person data, including privacy, security, authentication, access and data transfer mechanisms.
• Collection and processing of data for purposes other than the identification of persons and their associated records, even though some of the data elements collected for identification can be used for other purposes such as the determination and delivery of care, the compilation of statistics, contact tracing and reimbursement.
• This includes clinical content, care processes and financial identifiers not used for person or provider identification.
• Handling of person electronic consent in forms and other use cases, although this can be considered for addition by implementers and dependent on electronic signature policy for medical records.
• Naming conventions, and rules for specifying data element names and data element definitions.