Formatting of date of birth field

Most LinkedIn members noted their date of birth. And it's a powerful way to get into contact with some one by sending them a happy birthday message. I want to automate that, but I have issues with the date formatting of the field. Can you format that data in your database by altering it into a deal date? For instance: next birthday and then have a dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy format? It would help me a lot. Thanks!