What do you call uninterpreted elements such as a person's name or age?

The term that best describes uninterpreted elements such as a person's name or age is "data." In the context of health informatics and information systems, data refers to raw facts or figures that have not yet been processed or analyzed. These elements are individual pieces of information that, on their own, do not provide meaning or context until they are organized, processed, or interpreted.

For example, a name or an age is simply a representation of a person’s identity or age but does not convey any further information about that individual in its raw form. This contrasts with information, which is processed data that provides context and meaning. Metadata refers to data about data, containing information about the characteristics of the data itself, such as when it was created or its format. Statistics refer to data that has been analyzed and summarized, typically used to provide insights or trends and is not appropriate for describing raw uninterpreted elements. Hence, data accurately captures the essence of uninterpreted elements like a person’s name or age.