FHIR R4 Patient resource example

Patient holds who the person is: identifiers, names, contact details and demographics. Clinical facts live in other resources that point back to it through subject or patient.

The Patient in JSON

{
  "resourceType": "Patient",
  "id": "example",
  "identifier": [
    {
      "use": "usual",
      "system": "https://springfield-hospital.test/fhir/sid/mrn",
      "value": "MRN-004521"
    }
  ],
  "active": true,
  "name": [
    {
      "use": "official",
      "family": "Doe",
      "given": [
        "Jane",
        "Marie"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "telecom": [
    {
      "system": "phone",
      "value": "+1 555 0100",
      "use": "mobile"
    },
    {
      "system": "email",
      "value": "[email protected]"
    }
  ],
  "gender": "female",
  "birthDate": "1984-07-19",
  "address": [
    {
      "use": "home",
      "line": [
        "742 Evergreen Terrace"
      ],
      "city": "Springfield",
      "state": "IL",
      "postalCode": "62704",
      "country": "US"
    }
  ],
  "communication": [
    {
      "language": {
        "coding": [
          {
            "system": "urn:ietf:bcp:47",
            "code": "en-US",
            "display": "English (United States)"
          }
        ]
      },
      "preferred": true
    }
  ]
}

Validator result: raw JSON · open the validator

informationNo errors: this Patient matches the FHIR R4 structure checked here.

The elements that matter

Element	Cardinality	Notes
`identifier`	0..*	Business identifiers such as a medical record number; `system` says who issued the value.
`name`	0..*	`family` is a string, `given` is an array of strings.
`gender`	0..1	Administrative gender, one of `male`, `female`, `other`, `unknown`.
`birthDate`	0..1	A FHIR date: `YYYY`, `YYYY-MM` or `YYYY-MM-DD`, no time.
`telecom`	0..*	Phone, email and other contact points.
`communication`	0..*	Languages, coded with BCP 47 tags.

Every element of Patient is optional in the base specification; national profiles such as US Core add requirements (for example identifier, name and gender).

The full definition is in the FHIR R4 Patient specification.

Common mistakes and the errors they cause

Family as an array

In DSTU2 family was an array; in R4 it is a single string.

errorPatient.name[0].familyExpected a string.

Gender as a letter

Gender uses a required value set, so F or M is rejected.

errorPatient.genderPatient.gender 'F' is not in the required value set (female, male, other, unknown).

Unpadded birth date

Months and days need two digits.

errorPatient.birthDateNot a FHIR date: YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD.

Store it in a real FHIR R4 serverA free sandbox key gives you 30 synthetic patients and the full API, including POST /fhir/R4/Patient and $validate.

Get a free API key

More examples

Related guides

How to store medical records using FHIR R4Tutorial: create a Patient, a blood-pressure Observation and a Condition, use a transaction, search, update with history and read provenance — every request with curl and the real response, on the free sandbox.
FHIR platformHL7 FHIR R4 explained and how Anpheros implements it as a managed FHIR database: 26 resource types, search, history, transactions, $everything, the International Patient Summary and the simpler REST view of the same data.