birthDate Element

Birth Date Implementation Guide

Use case

This specification describes a single use case.

Element Usage

birthDate is used to capture a patients known date of birth. The format DD-MM-CCCC MUST be used.. Where a full date of birth is not known, the format shall include a locally agreed day and month, typically 1st January, to construct a complete date.

birthDate

• ‘birthDate’ MUST be used.
• A time value is not required as part of the date of birth
• Timezone should not be used as part of the date of birth.
• The date value must be valid e.g only 30th September but not 31st September

Example of Correct Usage

Usage	Element	examples	Comments
	birthDate	1957-01-01	Correct format for a date of birth

Example of Incorrect Usage

Usage	Element	examples	Comments
		1973-04	A missing day is not permitted and may cause clinical safety issues in addition to data quality.
		1997	A missing day and month is permitted and may cause clinical safety issues in addition to data quality.

On the wire XML example

<birthDate value="1957-01-01"/>

On the wire example in JSON

{
  "birthDate": { "-value": "1957-01-01" }
}

Error Handling

The provider system SHALL return an error if:

• The birthDate value does not comply with the aforementioned format.
• The birthDate value is omitted.
• The birthDate value is an invalid date.