ContactPoint
General information
See HL7 ContactPoint for general information regarding the ContactPoint data type.
Scope and Usage
This profile defines how ContactPoint should be used to represent contact information for persons and personnel in Swedish healthcare contexts. It specifies which elements are mandatory, optional, or repeatable, and provides guidance on terminology bindings for system and use. The profile is intended for use in multiple FHIR resources that include contact details, such as Patient, Practitioner, Person, and RelatedPerson. It ensures consistent representation, supports validation, and promotes interoperability across systems and organizations.
Boundaries and Relationships
The profile focuses solely on communication channels and does not include names, addresses, or identifiers. ContactPoint entries may be associated with other demographic information via the containing resource (e.g., Patient.telecom or Practitioner.telecom).
In some resources the ContactPoint data type is found nested inside the HL7 ExtendedContactDetail data type, along with NPPRAddress. The ExtendedContactDetail data type allows for supplying the purpose of the contact detail which allows for more flexibility than the ContactPoint.use element.
Background and Context
The ContactPoint data type is widely used across healthcare and administrative resources in FHIR to standardize communication information. Standardizing its use in Sweden ensures that contact details are represented consistently in local, regional, and national systems, supporting data exchange, interoperability, and compliance with national guidelines. This profile builds on the core HL7 FHIR definition while adding guidance specific to Swedish healthcare practice, including requirements for cardinality, usage, and preferred communication channels.
Profile
| NPPRContactPoint (ContactPoint) | C | ContactPoint | |
| id | 0..1 | string | |
| extension | C | 0..* | Extension |
| system | S Σ C | 1..1 | codeBinding |
| value | S Σ C | 1..1 | string |
| use | S Σ ?! | 0..1 | codeBinding |
| rank | Σ | 0..1 | positiveInt |
| period | S Σ C | 1..1 | Period |
| id | 0..1 | string | |
| extension | C | 0..* | Extension |
| start | S Σ C | 1..1 | dateTime |
| end | S Σ C | 0..1 | dateTime |
| ContactPoint | |
| Short | Details of a Technology mediated contact point (phone, fax, email, etc.) |
| Definition | Details for all kinds of technology mediated contact points for a person or organization, including telephone, email, etc. |
| Cardinality | 0..* |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.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 |
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 |
| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.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 managable, 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 |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.system | |
| Short | phone | fax | email | pager | url | sms | other |
| Definition | Telecommunications form for contact point - what communications system is required to make use of the contact. |
| Cardinality | 1..1 |
| Type | code |
| Binding | Telecommunications form for contact point. |
| Must Support | True |
| Summary | True |
| Comments | Note that FHIR strings SHALL NOT exceed 1,048,576 (1024*1024) characters in size |
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: cpt-2 |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.value | |
| Short | The actual contact point details |
| Definition | The actual contact point details, in a form that is meaningful to the designated communication system (i.e. phone number or email address). |
| Cardinality | 1..1 |
| Type | string |
| Must Support | True |
| Summary | True |
| Requirements | Need to support legacy numbers that are not in a tightly controlled format. |
| Comments | Additional text data such as phone extension numbers, or notes about use of the contact are sometimes included in the value. |
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: cpt-2 |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.use | |
| Short | home | work | temp | old | mobile - purpose of this contact point |
| Definition | Identifies the purpose for the contact point. |
| Cardinality | 0..1 |
| Type | code |
| Binding | Use of contact point. |
| Must Support | True |
| Modifier | True |
| Summary | True |
| Requirements | Need to track the way a person uses this contact, so a user can choose which is appropriate for their purpose. |
| Comments | Applications can assume that a contact is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old. |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.rank | |
| Short | Specify preferred order of use (1 = highest) |
| Definition | Specifies a preferred order in which to use a set of contacts. ContactPoints with lower rank values are more preferred than those with higher rank values. |
| Cardinality | 0..1 |
| Type | positiveInt |
| Summary | True |
| Comments | Note that rank does not necessarily follow the order in which the contacts are represented in the instance. Ranks need not be unique. E.g. it's possible to have multiple contacts with rank=1. If the ranks have different systems or uses, this would be interpreted to mean "X is my most preferred phone number, Y is my most preferred email address" or "X is my preferred home email and Y is my preferred work email". If the system and use for equally-ranked contacts are the same, then the level of preference is equivalent for both repetitions. Ranks need not be sequential and not all repetitions must have a rank. For example, it's possible to have 4 contacts with ranks of 2, 5 and two with no rank specified. That would be interpreted to mean the first is preferred over the second and no preference stated for the remaining contacts. |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.period | |
| Short | Time period when the contact point was/is in use |
| Definition | Time period when the contact point was/is in use. |
| Cardinality | 1..1 |
| Type | Period |
| Must Support | True |
| Summary | True |
| 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. |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.period.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 |
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: ele-1 |
| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.period.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 managable, 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 |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.period.start | |
| Short | Starting time with inclusive boundary |
| Definition | The start of the period. The boundary is inclusive. |
| Cardinality | 1..1 |
| Type | dateTime |
| Must Support | True |
| Summary | True |
| Comments | If the low element is missing, the meaning is that the low boundary is not known. |
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: per-1 |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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| ContactPoint.period.end | |
| Short | End time with inclusive boundary, if not ongoing |
| Definition | The end of the period. If the end of the period is missing, it means no end was known or planned at the time the instance was created. The start may be in the past, and the end date in the future, which means that period is expected/planned to end at that time. |
| Cardinality | 0..1 |
| Type | dateTime |
| Must Support | True |
| Summary | True |
| Comments | The end value includes any matching date/time. i.e. 2012-02-03T10:00:00 is in a period that has an end value of 2012-02-03. |
| Meaning when missing | If the end of the period is missing, it means that the period is ongoing |
| Conditions | The cardinality or value of this element may be affected by these constraints: per-1 |
| Constraints |
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| Mappings |
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Constraints
| Path | Id | Grade | Details | Expression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ContactPoint | nppr-telecom-phone-1 | warning | If telecom.system = #phone, value should follow format +46123456789 | value.matches('^\\+[1-9][0-9]+$') or system != 'phone' |
| ContactPoint | nppr-telecom-url-1 | warning | If telecom.system = #url, value should follow valid format. Example: https://example.com | value.matches('(https?|ftp)://(-\\.)?([^\\s/?\\.#-]+\\.?)+(/[^\\s]*)?$') or system != 'url' |
| ContactPoint | nppr-telecom-email-1 | warning | If telecom.system = #email, value should follow valid format Example: test@test.com | value.matches('^[\\w.-]{1,64}@(?!.{254})[\\w.-]+\\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$') or system != 'email' |
Terminology Bindings
| Path | Strength | ValueSet |
|---|---|---|
| ContactPoint.system | required | http://hl7.org/fhir/ValueSet/contact-point-system |