Final answer:
In designing a patient entity for a health information system, attributes like PatientID, FirstName, LastName, DateOfBirth, Gender, Address, ContactNumber, Email, and InsuranceNumber are included. Attributes are detailed with types like numerical for PatientID, strings for names, and dates for DateOfBirth.
Step-by-step explanation:
When designing a patient entity in a database for a health information system, several attributes help to define and characterize each patient uniquely. Here are some common attributes you might include:
PatientID (Primary Key): A unique identifier for each patient record.
FirstName: The patient's first name.
LastName: The patient's last name.
DateOfBirth: The patient's date of birth, which is essential for personal identification and age calculation.
Gender: The patient's gender, which can sometimes be relevant to their healthcare.
Address: A composite attribute that includes Street, City, State, and PostalCode.
ContactNumber: The patient's telephone number.
Email: The patient's email address.
InsuranceNumber: If applicable, the insurance policy number for billing purposes.
Each attribute can have different types, such as:
PatientID would be a numerical type, often an integer.
FirstName and LastName would be string types.
DateOfBirth would be a date type.
Gender may be a string or sometimes an enumerated type if the database system supports it.
Address and ContactNumber elements would be strings.
Email and InsuranceNumber would also typically be strings.