Represents any text item, without visual formatting.

A system of valid symbols/codes, that substitute for specified concepts e.g. alpha, numeric, symbols and/or combinations, usually defined by a formal reference to a terminology or ontology, but may also be defined by the provision of text. Typically a symbol/code is expressed with a value for code, an identifier for the terminology or ontology it belongs to and at least one textual representation (display name).

Type for representing identifiers of real-world entities. Typical identifiers include drivers licence number, social security number, prescription id, order id, and so on.

Represents an absolute point in time, as measured on the Gregorian calendar, and specified only to the day. Semantics defined by ISO 8601. Used for recording dates in real world time. The partial form is used for approximate birth dates, dates of death, etc.

Represents an absolute point in time, specified to the second. Semantics defined by ISO 8601. Used for recording a precise point in real world time, e.g. the exact date and time of the birth of a baby, and for approximate time stamps, e.g. the origin of an history observation which is only partially known.

Represents an point in time on the 24 hour clock without specifying the date, specified to the second. Semantics defined by ISO 8601. Used for recording a point in real world time, e.g. the hours to take medication (08, 12, 18 o'clock), exact time a baby was born, time of stopping CPR.

Quantitified type representing "scientific" quantities, i.e. quantities expressed as a magnitude and units. If not further specified with fractionDigits, a decimal number with optional decimal point (i.e. '3.14159265359'). There are some "special" quantities (used in healthcare), explained later: for time durations duration shall be used; for monetary amounts currency shall be used

Is a quantity, represents a period of time with respect to a notional point in time, which is not specified. A sign may be used to indicate the duration is “backwards” in time rather than forwards.

Items which are truly boolean data, such as true/false or yes/no answers.

Countable (non-monetary) quantities. Used for countable types such as pregnancies, steps (taken by a physiotherapy patient), number of cigarettes smoked in a day.

Models rankings and scores, e.g. pain, Apgar, reflex, ASA, Tanner values, etc, where there is a) implied ordering, b) no implication that the distance between each value is con- stant, and c) the total number of values is finite. Note that although the term ‘ordinal’ in mathematics means natural numbers only, here any integer is allowed, since negative and zero values are often used by medical professionals for values around a neutral point. 
Examples of sets of ordinal values: -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 (reflex response values); 0, 1, 2 (Apgar score values); 1, 2, 3, 4,... (ASA classification); I, II, III, IV, ... (Tanner scale)

Represents a text item, which may contain any amount of legal characters arranged as e.g. words, sentences etc. Visual formatting and hyperlinks may be included.

Decimal number (rarely used, in most cases a decimal number is actually a quantity).

Things that are typically stored as binary objects in the computer world and need to be rendered appropriately, e.g. images: like X-rays, computertomographic images and scans.

Non-atomic datatypes which are not explictly further defined in the dataset itself. Example: 'address' or 'person name'. Usually complex types are assumed to be well-known enough not to warrant further decomposition in the dataset itself.