Clinical Document Architecture (CDA)

NIST’s suite of CDA-based validation tools supports the conformance testing of standards and implementation guides based on HL7’s Clinical Document Architecture (CDA). 

The testing tools are designed to be used by HIT developers and implementers during the development of software that implements CDA-based specifications. These tools can be used for self-testing to determine if an XML instance document is correct with respect to the specifications identified.

The NIST CDA Guideline Validation tools are used by:

• Implementers for self-testing,
• The ONC Health IT certification in support of CMS Meaningful Use,
• IHE Connect-a-thon testing events,
• And other stakeholders

The document types validated by these tools include, but are not limited to:

• HITSP C32: HITSP Summary Documents Using HL7 CCD
• HL7 National Health Care Surveys document
• HL7 Lab CDA
• Cancer Registry submissions
• Encounter Document (Referral and Discharge)
• A range of document types under the IHE Patient Care Coordination (PCC) umbrella
• Basic Patient Privacy Consent
• And others

These tools are available in two areas:

• CDA Guideline Validation Tool
• NIST General Validation Tool (GVT) under a scope specific to the CDA document type and version