Patient's country of birth - preferred option has not been identified

[robeastwood-agency]

Prerequisites

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues to make sure it isn't already requested or reported
• [x] I have written a descriptive issue title

The issue / feature

Change description

Representing a patient's country of birth is done using the core extension patient-birthPlace, using the standard Address datatype.

The Address datatype allows for a country to be recorded in a variety of ways, including:

• Address.text as a string (eg <text value="Portugal">)
• Address.country as a string (eg <country value="Portugal">)
• Address.country as a string, but using a ISO 3166 2 letter code (eg <country value="PT">)
• Address.country as a string, but using a ISO 3166 3 letter code (eg <country value="PRT">)
• various combinations of the above

The problem is that due to this variation in sending data, receiving systems may not be be to process valid data. That is, a sending system may send it using one of the above options and a receiving system can only process another one of the options.

Ideally, a preferred option would be chosen for sending a standard representation for country.

What it actually enables people to do

This would facilitate interoperability of such data.

Mockups

n/a

How awesome would it be?

This would be a welcome addition to specifications to facilitate sharing of data between systems.

Workarounds

As described above, multiple options exist.

Additional context

n/a

[RichardTON]

Needs to support countries that no longer exist or have changed their name. e.g. USSR, Rhodesia.