The family history describes any health problems of biological relatives that may be relevant. The family history contains information on the medical disorders of the family member and the biological relationship between the patient and the described family member.

Purpose

Recording the patient’s family members’ health problems. This component can be relevant in estimating the risk of these health problems occurring in the patient. This component can also partially influence the decision determining which diagnostics are or are not to be run: a high-risk patient might be more likely to receive extensive diagnostics, while a simpler test could suffice for a low-risk patient.

Instructions

The age at which a family member developed a disorder or the age at which the family member died can be included in the ‘explanation’ field if desired.

The value list BiologicalRelationshipCodeList contains a number of concepts which can be used for both biological and non-biological relatives: a step-father’s brother can be listed as an uncle for lack of specific codes for step-uncle and real uncles. Therefore, when compiling the family history, make sure that only the biological relatives are considered.