DICOM Attribute

Patient's Birth Date (0010,0030)

Keyword
PatientBirthDate
VR
DA
VM
1

Definition

Birth date of the Patient.

From NEMA PS3.3 §C.7.1.1.

Attribute Metadata

Tag
(0010,0030)
Keyword
PatientBirthDate
Name
Patient's Birth Date
Value Representation (VR)
DA
Value Multiplicity (VM)
1
Status
Active
Source
NEMA PS3.6 (table_6-1)

This attribute is part of the current DICOM Standard. Its value representation is DA with multiplicity 1.

Used in 2 Modules

This attribute uses the DA Value Representation. Multiplicity 1 governs how many values may be encoded.

Integration Notes

Real-world integration guidance for engineers implementing this attribute in Mirth Connect, FHIR gateways, HL7 v2 bridges, and cloud DICOM services. Authoritative source data where available; reference examples and operational notes where they add value.

FHIR Mapping

  • Patient.birthDate PatientBirthDate (DA: YYYYMMDD) ↔ Patient.birthDate (date) — direct value mapping. Empty DICOM value maps to absent FHIR field.

Source: HL7 FHIR R5 ImagingStudy (CC0).

HL7 v2 Equivalent

  • PID-7 Date/Time of Birth
    ADTORMORU

    PID-7 is a TS (timestamp) — DICOM consumes only the date portion (YYYYMMDD).

    Source: IHE RAD-TF Vol 2 §4.1

Verify against IHE Radiology TF Vol 2 and your facility's interface specification before production use.

Cloud DICOM Support

  • AWS HealthImaging Queryable
  • Azure DICOM Queryable
  • Google Cloud Healthcare Queryable

Patient Birth Date is a Study-level QIDO-RS matching key on all three platforms.

Per-vendor source URLs and verification date in src/content/dicom/cloud-support.json#_meta. Status taxonomy: required (mandated on Store), queryable (QIDO-RS matching key), preserved (stored as-is), promoted (AWS top-level metadata), unsupported (stripped/rejected).

Real-World Sample Values

  • 19850417 PS3.5 DA VR

    YYYYMMDD — DA VR format, no separators

  • 19720101 common placeholder

    Jan 1 of estimated year — common when only year is known

  • (empty value) PS3.3 Type 2 attribute

    Empty value — Patient module makes DOB Type 2 (required, may be zero-length)

Curated illustrative samples — no real PHI. Each value teaches a real-world pattern (PN VR component delimiters, multi-script encoding, MRN format, RadLex order text). Maintained at scripts/dicom/data/manual-samples.source.json.

Mirth Connect Example

Convert DICOM Patient Birth Date (DA) to HL7 v2 TS — DICOM DA is YYYYMMDD; HL7 v2 PID-7 is TS (timestamp) where the time portion is o

DICOM DA is YYYYMMDD; HL7 v2 PID-7 is TS (timestamp) where the time portion is optional.

// (0010,0030) Patient's Birth Date — DA is already YYYYMMDD which is also valid TS
var dob = String(msg.dataset.attr.(@tag == '00100030').value).trim();
if (/^\d{8}$/.test(dob)) {
  tmp['PID'][7][1] = dob; // already in correct YYYYMMDD form
} else {
  channelMap.put('birthdate_warning', 'Malformed DOB: ' + dob);
  tmp['PID'][7][1] = ''; // signal absence to downstream
}

Reference only — validate before production. Snippets are starting points, not turnkey solutions. Always test against your channel's specific message structure and your facility's interface specification. See Mirth Connect User Guide + NEMA PS3.6 + your vendor conformance statement for authoritative specification.

Common Operational Errors

Operational error patterns for the most-queried tags will be added as coverage expands.

DICOM Integration Services

Saga IT builds production DICOM integrations across Mirth Connect, FHIR gateways, and cloud imaging platforms. If you're working with PatientBirthDate or the broader (0010,0030) context: