Clinical Document Architecture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) is an XML-based markup standard intended to specify the encoding, structure and semantics of clinical documents for exchange.
CDA is part of the HL7 version 3 standard. Akin to other parts of the HL7 version 3 standard it was developed using the HL7 development Framework (HDF) and it is based on the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM) and the HL7 Version 3 Data Types. CDA documents are persistent in nature.
The CDA specifies that the content of the document consists of a mandatory textual part (which ensures human interpretation of the document contents) and optional structured parts (for software processing). The structured part relies on coding systems (such as from SNOMED and LOINC) to represent concepts.
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[edit] Transport
The CDA standard doesn't specify how the documents should be transported. CDA documents can be transported using HL7 version 2 messages, HL7 version 3 messages, as well as by other mechanisms, such as DICOM, MIME attachments to email, http or ftp.
[edit] Country specific notes
In the U.S. the CDA standard is probably best known as the basis for the Continuity of Care Document (CCD) specification, based on the data model as specified by ASTMs Continuity of Care Record. The U.S. Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel has selected the CCD as one of its standards.
