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Practitioners represent healthcare providers — physicians, nurses, therapists, and any other clinician in your system. The FHIR R4 Practitioner resource stores their personal and professional details: name, NPI, qualifications, specialties, and languages. Other clinical resources like encounters, prescriptions, and notes reference practitioners by ID.

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Create a practitioner

const { data: doc } = await clinik.practitioners.create({
  firstName: 'Sarah',
  lastName: 'Chen',
  prefix: ['Dr.'],
  suffix: ['MD', 'FACC'],
  email: '[email protected]',
  phone: '+1-555-0100',
  gender: 'female',
  npi: '1234567890',
  specialty: 'Cardiology',
  qualifications: [
    {
      name: 'Doctor of Medicine',
      issuer: 'Johns Hopkins University',
      period: { start: '2010-05-15' },
    },
    {
      name: 'Board Certified - Cardiovascular Disease',
      issuer: 'American Board of Internal Medicine',
      identifier: 'ABIM-12345',
      period: { start: '2015-06-01', end: '2025-06-01' },
    },
  ],
  languages: ['en', 'zh'],
  address: {
    line: ['100 Medical Center Blvd'],
    city: 'Austin',
    state: 'TX',
    postalCode: '78701',
  },
});
The npi field stores the National Provider Identifier. NPI values must be 10 digits. ClinikAPI stores them as an identifier on the FHIR Practitioner resource.

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Read a practitioner

const { data: practitioner } = await clinik.practitioners.read(doc.id!);

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Update a practitioner

Send only the fields you want to change: 
const { data: updated } = await clinik.practitioners.update(doc.id!, {
  phone: '+1-555-0199',
  specialty: 'Interventional Cardiology',
});

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Deactivate a practitioner

Set active: false to deactivate a practitioner without deleting their record. Deactivated practitioners remain searchable with active: false but are excluded from default search results. 
await clinik.practitioners.update(doc.id!, {
  active: false,
});

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Search practitioners

// Find cardiologists
const { data } = await clinik.practitioners.search({
  specialty: 'Cardiology',
  active: true,
});

// Look up by NPI
const { data: byNpi } = await clinik.practitioners.search({
  npi: '1234567890',
});

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Referencing practitioners

Most clinical resources accept a practitionerId field. Once you have a practitioner ID, use it when creating encounters, prescriptions, notes, and assessments: 
// Encounter with a practitioner
await clinik.encounters.create({
  status: 'in-progress',
  class: 'AMB',
  patientId: 'pt_abc123',
  practitionerId: doc.id!,
  type: 'Cardiology follow-up',
});

// Prescription written by a practitioner
await clinik.prescriptions.create({
  patientId: 'pt_abc123',
  prescriberId: doc.id!,
  medication: 'Lisinopril 10mg',
  intent: 'order',
});

// Clinical note authored by a practitioner
await clinik.notes.create({
  patientId: 'pt_abc123',
  authorId: doc.id!,
  title: 'Cardiology Consultation',
  content: 'Patient presents with well-controlled hypertension...',
  type: 'consultation-note',
});

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Practitioner roles

A practitioner can hold multiple roles at different organizations. Use clinik.practitionerRoles to define where and when they practice: 
// Primary role at a clinic
await clinik.practitionerRoles.create({
  practitionerId: doc.id!,
  organizationName: 'Austin Heart Clinic',
  role: 'doctor',
  specialty: ['Cardiology', 'Interventional Cardiology'],
  locationName: 'Main Campus',
  availableDays: ['mon', 'tue', 'wed', 'thu', 'fri'],
  availableStartTime: '08:00',
  availableEndTime: '17:00',
});

// Consulting role at a hospital on Thursdays
await clinik.practitionerRoles.create({
  practitionerId: doc.id!,
  organizationName: "St. David's Medical Center",
  role: 'consultant',
  specialty: ['Cardiology'],
  locationName: 'Cardiology Wing',
  availableDays: ['thu'],
  availableStartTime: '13:00',
  availableEndTime: '17:00',
});
See the Practitioner Roles guide for the full role management API.