CDA-Examples

The CDA Example repository contains examples reviewed and approved by the Structured Document Work Group.

Validation

All examples are automatically validated against C-CDA 3.0 or later using FHIR Structure Definition validation.

Wherever possible, examples have also been validated against C-CDA 2.1's schematron. This can be done manually by executing the following on a local copy of the repository (prereq: NodeJS)

(Only need to run npm i once)

npm i
npm run 2.1

This will validate all input/examples files against the C-CDA 2.1 schematron with Companion Guide 4.1 additions.

Additional scripts exist to run validation against C-CDA 3.0 and 4.0 schematron (npm run 3.0 / npm run 4.0), though.

Validating a single file or subset of files

Pass a single-word (can by dash-delimited) after the version to filter validation to a subset of matching files:

npm run 2.1 vitals

Adding / Modifying Examples

The majority of XML-based examples consist of 2 parts: the sample XML file itself, and an entry in the ImplementationGuide resource (hl7.cda.examples.json). Other guidance and narrative pages are created according to normal FHIR Implementation Guide processes

Example XML File

Create or update XML files under /input/examples/ and name them starting with the grouping (categorization) followed by a unique name in kebab-case.

• FHIR validation requires XML to be properly namespaced, so include xmlns="urn:hl7-org:v3" on the root element, even if it is not <ClinicalDocument>.
• Make sure there are no spaces before the first < character on the first line of XML (preceding lines of comments are allowed)
• Indent with 2 spaces for consistency; do not use tabs

After creating the file, it can be validated using the scripts mentioned above (even before it is included in the IG resource).

Example Definition in IG Create or update definition.resource[] for the example. Look at other examples as a model, but in general:

• Set 3 required extensions:
  • implementationguide-resource-format - valueCode: 'application/xml'
  • implementationguide-resource-logical - set valueCanonical to the URL of the primary profile corresponding to the root node. (If using a generic Section or other CDA element, this can be a URI from the Base CDA SD IG)
  • ExampleApprovalStatus - populate with status and dates of approval
• Set reference to Binary/{example-xml-file-name-without-extension}
• Set isExample to true
• Populate name and description (markdown allowed, use \n for a linebreak)
• Set groupingId to one of the groups (defined in same IG file under definition.grouping[])
• Set profiles[] to a list of profiles that are represented by this example (including the URL specified in the resource-logical extension above)

Once set in the IG, run the IG Publisher by executing _genonce (either .bat for Windows or .sh for Mac/Linux) and verify the new example appears as expected.

Helpful Scripts

The following scripts are helpful when making structural changes to the IG:

• node scripts/generatePages.js - Run after modifying groupings to update the IG's pages field, create new pagecontent entries, and update the menu