Replaces PN as of v 2.3.

Internationalization Note: In countries using ideographic or syllabic (phonetic) character sets, it is sometimes necessary to send the name in one or both of these formats, as well as an alphabetic format. The switching between the different character sets can be accomplished using a character set such as JIS X 0202 - ISO 2022 which provides an escape sequence for switching among different character sets and among single-byte and multi-byte character representations. When the name field is repeated, the different repetitions of the name may be represented by these different character sets. The details are as follows. (See also Section 2.9.2, "Escape sequences supporting multiple character sets for PN, XPN, XCN, XON, XAD, FT, ST and TX data types.")

HL7 supports the following standards for Japanese characters:

• JIS X 0201 for ISO-IR 13 (Japanese Katakana)
• JIS X 0201 for ISO-IR 14 (Japanese Romaji)
• JIS X 0208 for ISO-IR 87 (Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana)
• JIS X 0212 for ISO-IR 159 (supplementary Japanese Kanji)

HL7 supports the following standards for European characters:

• ISO 8859 (1-9) for ISO-IR 100, 101, 109, 110, 144,127, 126, 138 and 148.

Character sets are referenced in HL7 as ASCII, 8859/1,8859/2, ISO IR14, ISO IR87, and ISO IR159. DICOM uses codes laid out in ISO 2375, of the form 'ISO-IR xxx'. HL7 supports this naming as well, to facilitate interoperability.

HL7 uses the Basic G0 Set of the International Reference Version of ISO 646:1990 (ISO IR-6) as the default character repertoire for character strings. This is a single-byte character set, identical to ASCII.

Each repetition of a XPN, XON, XCN, or XAD field is assumed to begin with the default character set. If another character set is to be used, the HL7 defined escape sequence used to announce that character set must be at the beginning of the repetition, and the HL7 defined escape sequence used to start the default character set must be at the end of the repetition. Note also that several character sets may be intermixed within a single repetition as long as the repetition ends with a return to the default character set.

An application must specify which character sets it supports in the field "MSH-18 Character Sets" and which character set handling scheme it supports in the field MSH-20-Alternate character set handling scheme. It is assumed that the sending and receiving applications are aware of how to map character set names (i.e., ISO-IR xxx) to escape sequences.

For example, in many Japanese messages there is a mix of Romaji (i.e., Roman characters), Katakana (phonetic representation of foreign words), Hiragana (phonetic representation of Japanese words) and Kanji (pictographs). Such a message would require 4 character sets be specified in the MSH.

Character Repertoires supported by DICOM are defined in Part 5, section 6.1. The DICOM Standard is available free on the Internet at http://medical.nema.org/.

Examples of names requiring only one iteration of the field where the XPN is applied:

Example 1: Adam A. Everyman III PhD

|Everyman^Adam^A^III^DR^^L^^^^^^^PHD|

Example 2:Ludwig van Beethoven

|Beethoven&van^Ludwig^^^^^L|

Example 3: Hermann Egon Mayer zur alten Schildesche

|Mayer^Hermann^Egon^zur alten Schildesche|

Example 4: Sister Margot

|^Margot^^^Sister^^C|

Example 5: Dr Patrick John Flannery AO. MBBS. ASCTS. A physician who holds an Honorarium, an academic degree and a board certificate. Professional suffixes are displayed as concatenated. (AO = Order of Australia (Honorarium), MBBS = Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, ASCTS = Australian Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons

|Flannery^Patrick^John^^Dr^L^^^^^^^^ AO.MBBS.ASCTS|

Example 6: Nancy N. Nightingale, RN, PHN, BSN, MSN. A registered nurse who is a Public Health Nurse with 2 academic degrees, BSN and MSN.

|Nightingale^Nancy^N^^^^^^^^^^RN, PHN, BSN, MSN|

Example 7: T.Thomas Ackerson Jr., RN, CNP. A registered nurse who is a certified nurse practitioner.

|Ackerson^Thomas^T^Jr^^^^^^^^^^ RN, CNP|

Example 8: Mevrouw Irma Jongeneel de Haas. An individual whose birth name (geboortenaam) is de Haas and whose partner's name is Jongeneel.

|Jongeneel-de Haas&de&Haas&&Jongeneel^Irma^^^Mevrouw^^L|

Examples of names requiring more than one iteration of the field where the XPN is applied:

Example 9: Herr Prof. Dr. med. Joachim W. Dudeck

|Dudeck^Joachim^W.^^Dr.med.^^L^^^^^^^ MD ~Dudeck^J.W.^^^Herr Prof.Dr.^^D|

Example 10: Herr Dr. Otto Graf Lambsdorff mdB a.D. According to German law "Adelstitel" like "Graf" or "Baron" belongs to the family name and therefor must be encoded in the family name field separated by blanks.

|Graf Lambsdorff&Graf&Lambsdorff^Otto^^^Dr.^^L~Graf Lambsdorff&Graf&Lambsdorff^Otto^^mdB a.D.^Herr Dr.^^D|

Example 11: Walter Kemper genannt (named) Mölleken

|Kemper^Walter^^^^^L~Mölleken^Walter^^^^^A|

Example 12: Herr Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Egon Maier

|Maier^Egon^^^Dr.med. Dr.h.c.^^L^^^^^^^MD~Maier^Egon^^^Herr Dr.med. Dr.h.c^^D|

Example 13: Herr Dipl.Ing. Egon Maier

|Maier^Egon^^^^^L^^^^^^^ DIPL~Maier^Egon^^^Herr Dipl.Ing.^^D|

Example 14: Frau Gerda Müller geb. Maier, verheiratet seit 16.2.2000

|Müller^Gerda^^^Frau^^L^^^^^20000216~Maier^Gerda^^^Frau^^M|

Example 15: President Adam A Everyman III, president from 1997 until 2001, aka Sonny Everyman

|Everyman^Adam^A.^III^President^^L~^^^^Mr. President^^D^^^^^19970816^20010320~Everyman^Sonny^^^^^A|

Example 16: Michio Kimura

This example doesn’t use title and degrees, but shows the repetition of this name for different purposes.

|Kimura^Michio^^^^^L^I~Kimura^Michio^^^^^L^P~ Kimura^Michio^^^^^L^A|