Participant used in performing the act without being substantially affected by the act (i.e. durable or inert with respect to that particular service).

                       Examples: monitoring equipment, tools, but also access/drainage lines, prostheses, pace maker, etc.

A verifier who attests to the accuracy of an act, but who does not have privileges to legally authenticate the act. An example would be a resident physician who sees a patient and dictates a note, then later signs it. Their signature constitutes an authentication.

The person or organization that has primary responsibility for the act. The responsible party is not necessarily present in an action, but is accountable for the action through the power to delegate, and the duty to review actions with the performing actor after the fact. This responsibility may be ethical, legal, contractual, fiscal, or fiduciary in nature.

                       Example: A person who is the head of a biochemical laboratory; a sponsor for a policy or government program.

A person entering the data into the originating system. The data entry person is collected optionally for internal quality control purposes. This includes the transcriptionist for dictated text.

Definition: A person, non-person living subject, organization or device that who actually and principally carries out the action. Device should only be assigned as a performer in circumstances where the device is performing independent of human intervention. Need not be the principal responsible actor.

                       Exampe: A surgery resident operating under supervision of attending surgeon, a search and rescue dog locating survivors, an electronic laboratory analyzer or the laboratory discipline requested to perform a laboratory test. The performer may also be the patient in self-care, e.g. fingerstick blood sugar. The traditional order filler is a performer. This information should accompany every service event.

                    
                       Note: that existing HL7 designs assign an organization as the playing entity of the Role that is the performer.  These designs should be revised in subsequent releases to make this the scooping entity for the role involved.