Book Review: The CDA Book

they have additional information on their patients’ health and clinical statuses. The information could be acquired directly from patients or electronically from other providers through healthcare information exchanges (HIE). In the latter case, a common language or standard is necessary for sending and receiving digital forms of clinical data among healthcare organizations. On February 12, 2007, the Continuity of Care Document (CCD) was borne through a joint collaborative effort of two well-known standard developing organizations (SDOs), the Health Level Seven (HL7) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International [1]. Prior to that date, the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) by ASTM and Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) by HL7 each had dominant roles in determining the healthcare information technology standards and data formats regarding HIE and related fields. However, there were both dissimilarities and overlaps between the two organizations’ standards [2]. With this new CCD standard, developers of healthcare information systems could eliminate duplication of programming and, therefore, could save much time and reduce financial costs incurred due to different rules and regulations. Although the CCD replaced the CCR and CDA, the CDA still has an important role because the US government has adopted it as a common standard and rule regarding HIE, which affects most healthcare organizations [3]. For this reason, we need to specifically look at the CDA to understand why it still has a dominant role regarding HIE. A few books have explored this subject, and the purpose of this article is to introduce the CDA by reviewing a book specifically about CDA. Keith W. Boone, the author of “The CDA Books” has expertise in various healthcare standards, and he has participated The CDA Book