Family Member History
A collection of health concerns (health conditions and illnesses) that affects or has affected a patient's biological relative (a family member).
If a related family member is not specified (via "applies to" relationship to Reported Family Member), then the health concerns, if any, are assumed to apply to one or more of the patient's family members - which one(s) is unknown.
If no associated health concerns are specified (via composition relationship to Family Member Health Concern) then it is assumed that, as reported or recorded, a specific family member or any family member (without specifying which one) has no known health concerns. This is different from a Data Absent Reason (where Status Code is "health unknown"), in which case this class will not be populated, but rather the Family Member History Data Absent Reason (DAR) class. Note that the present class can be populated for some reported family members, and the DAR class for others.
Use cases as kinds of practitioner-patient dialogue:
(1)
- Practitioner: Is there cancer in you family?
- Patient: There are no health concerns in my family.
=>
- relationship to Family History Health Concern: not populated (means: no known health concerns).
(2)
- Practitioner: Is there cancer in you family?
- Patient: No.
=>
- relationship Family History Health Concern: points to record for cancer with Has Health Concern Indicator = False.
- relationship to Reported Family Member: not populated (means: "all family members").
(3)
- Practitioner: Is there cancer in you family?
- Patient: Yes.
- Practitioner: Who in your family has it?
- Patient: My mother.
=>
- relationship Family History Health Concern: points to record for cancer with Has Health Concern Indicator = True.
- relationship to Reported Family Member: points to record having "mother" relationship type.
Appears in
Constraints
Unique key(s)
- Patient, Reported Family Member if specified
- Family Member History Status Code is not "health-unknown" (Data Absent Reason class populated otherwise).
Stereotype(s)
n/a
Attributes
| Attribute | Type | Multiplicity | Attribute note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Member History Status Code | Codeable Concept | 1 | Uniquely specifies the status of the clinical history (health concerns) of a patient’s (biological-relative) family member if one is specified, or of any family member(s) otherwise (e.g., partial, completed, entered-in-error, health-unknown).
If it is not known, at the time when family member history is reported, whether the (or any) family member has any health concerns, then the status code shall be "health-unknown" and the DAR class shall be populated instead of this class.
If, on the other hand, no health concerns are reported for this (or for any, unspecified) family member, then this class shall be populated with an instance having no related Health Concerns. In such cases, it is known that the (or any) family member has no reported health concerns. This is different from a DAR, i.e., from not knowing whether the family member (or anyone in the family) has health concerns or not.
In summary, if the status is "health-unknown", there may not be associated health concerns. But if the status is not "health-unknown", there may or may not be associated health concerns (if not, that means that no health concerns were reported at the time).
Value Set: https://hl7.org/fhir/R4/valueset-history-status.html |
Relationships
| From class | From multiplicity | Relationship | To class | To multiplicity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Member History | 0..1 | reported in | Health Care Service Event | 0..1 |
| Family Member History | 0..* | documented in | Encounter | 0..1 |
| Family Member History | 0..* | has | Clinical Information Life Cycle Event | 0..* |
| Family Member History | 0..* | for | Patient | 1 |
| Family Member History | 0..* | applies to | Reported Family Member | 0..1 |
| Family Member History | 0..* | has (composition) | Family Member Health Concern | 0..* |
| Family Member History | 0..1 | has (composition) | Clinical Annotation | 0..* |
Contact us
If you have questions about this initiative, would like to be added to our stakeholder notification list or would like to participate in our consultations, please email us.
How to cite:
Canadian Institute for Health Information. Family Member History. Accessed November 02, 2026.
