Reported Family Member
A patient's reported biological-relative family member. Can be identified by its relationship type which must be specified (e.g., "brother") as well as, optionally, by a description (name or general characterization, e.g., "cousin with red hair").
Since description is not guaranteed to be unique, and only relationship type is mandatory to specify for a reported family member, an additional technical (system-generated) identifier may be required to disambiguate family members (e.g., "sister 1", "sister 2" or "1", "2", both having relationship type = "sister", so that the combination of relationship type code and backend-generated identifier shall be unique). However, given that such an identifier has no business meaning, it is not represented in this semantic model.
Attributes
| Attribute | Type | Multiplicity | Attribute note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Member Relationship Type Code | Codeable Concept | 1 | Uniquely specifies the type of relationship between the patient and a person who shares a common ancestry (e.g., brother, mother).
Only biological relatives are clinically relevant for family history. Adoptive members (e.g., grandmother, grandfather) are not relevant, even though they are in the value set below.
Value Set: https://fhir.infoway-inforoute.ca/ValueSet/familymemberrelationshipcode |
| Family Member Description | String | 0..1 | Reported name (e.g., "Mary Rogers") or general description of a family member. Description may be subjective/imprecise (e.g., "Aunt Mary", "cousin with red hair", "first sister"). |
Relationships
| From class | From multiplicity | Relationship | To class | To multiplicity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Member History Data Absent Reason | 0..* | applies to | Reported Family Member | 0..1 |
| Family Member History | 0..* | applies to | Reported Family Member | 0..1 |
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. Reported Family Member. Accessed November 02, 2026.
