What is the state of CDA R3?

Aug 23, 2015

Question

We have seen references to new extension methodologies being proposed in CDA R3; however I can’t seem to find what the current state of CDA R3 is.  Most searches return old results.  The most recent document related to CDA R3 using FHIR instead of RIM.  What is the current state of CDA R3 and where can I find more information.  HL7 pages seem to be pretty old.

Answer

The Structured Documents work group at HL7 (the community that maintains the CDA standard), is currently focused on publishing a backwards compatible update to CDA R2 called CDA R2.1. CDA R3 work has been deferred to the future, both in order to allow the community to focus on R 2.1, and to allow FHIR time to mature.

There is general informal agreement that CDA R3 will be FHIR based, but I wouldn’t regard that as formal or final; FHIR has to demonstrate value in some areas that it hasn’t yet done before a final decision could be made. I expect that we’ll have more discussions about this at the HL7 working meeting in Atlanta in October.