Overriding Links

Rarely, the automated record linking in the Identity service may need to be overridden or otherwise guided.

Contents

Linking Records Manually
Unlinking Records Manually
Removing Match Guidance

Linking Records Manually

In the Understanding Record Groups tutorial, two records were added for the same John Smith. The demographics from these records were different enough that the Identity service could not confidently conclude that they were the same individual. John ended up with two different Person IDs:

John's "Community Clinic" Record

{
    "id": "a46ee8bd-9dd1-41e6-bced-f2578ce37ae0",
    "records": [
        {
            "source": "CommunityClinic",
            "identifier": "12345"
        }
    ],
}

John's "Anytown Urgent Care" Record

{
    "id": "463091ba-6629-4800-9b23-b30a83f16ab6",
    "records": [
        {
            "source": "AnytownUrgentCare",
            "identifier": "AZ67889"
        }
    ],
}

If you know definitively that both records are from the same individual, you can use the Add Match Guidance operation to link the records.

POST /mpi/v1/addGuidance

{
    "recordOne": {
      "source": "AnytownUrgentCare",
      "identifier": "AZ67889"
    },
    "recordTwo": {
        "source": "CommunityClinic",
        "identifier": "12345"
    },
    "action": "Match",
    "comment": "Per manual records review"
}

The Identity service will keep the older of the two Person IDs (in this case a46e...) and retire the other one (4630...). Any records associated with the retired Person ID will be moved to the retained one. This is indicated in the response data:

{
    "changedPersons": [
        {
            "id": "463091ba-6629-4800-9b23-b30a83f16ab6",
            "records": [
                {
                  "source": "AnytownUrgentCare",
                  "identifier": "AZ67889"
                }
            ],
            "version": 1,
            "status": {
                "code": "Retired",
                "supersededBy": [
                    "a46ee8bd-9dd1-41e6-bced-f2578ce37ae0"
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

Future queries of the 4630... Person ID will return a status of Retired, with the supersededBy field pointing to the correct Person ID.

Unlinking Records Manually

Erroneous matches are rare, because the Identity service will not link records unless there is high confidence that the records are the same person. However, they can occur when there is incomplete or incorrect record data, such as a typo conflating two twins named Brad and Chad that live at the same address. If that happens, you can unlink the records.

Imagine that there were two matched records:

{
    "id": "eed7e82d-e113-487c-ba4c-16df02650566",
    "records": [
        {
            "source": "OurTownDoctor",
            "identifier": "24680"
        },
        {
            "source": "GeneralHospital",
            "identifier": "88776"
        }
    ],
    ...
}

If you know definitively that both records are from different individuals, you can use the Add Match Guidance operation to unlink the records.

POST /mpi/v1/addGuidance

{
    "recordOne": {
      "source": "OurTownDoctor",
      "identifier": "24680"
    },
    "recordTwo": {
        "source": "GeneralHospital",
        "identifier": "88776"
    },
    "action": "NoMatch",
    "comment": "Unlinking records from father and son"
}

Removing Match Guidance

If you ever create a manual override in error, you can use the Remove Match Guidance operation to cancel the override.

POST /mpi/v1/removeGuidance

{
    "recordOne": {
      "source": "AnytownUrgentCare",
      "identifier": "AZ67889"
    },
    "recordTwo": {
        "source": "CommunityClinic",
        "identifier": "12345"
    },
    "comment": "Actually weren't the same people after all."
}