HL7 CDA CCD vs. ASTM CCR ...

[The EHR Guy]

Lately there has been a lot of discussions whether CCR will fade out and HL7 CDA CCD emerge as the victorious champion.

Why does there have to be a winner?

In my opinion they are both useful and each have their intended audience.

Actually, we should be thinking more about developing solutions that can aid in
converting from one document type to another rather than expecting one
or the Other to disappear.

CDA CCD was derived from CCR but modeled from HL7’s RIM (Reference Information Model). HL7 is an
organization that is formed by large healthcare enterprises such as:
RHIOs, HIEs, Federated Healthcare Organizations, IDNs, vendors and
others.

These large organizations are likely to follow HL7 standards since they actively participate in defining them. The HL7 CDA CCD is more apt
to exchange complex healthcare information based on well defined
schemas.

CCR was created by ASTM under the sponsorship of the AAFP (American Academy of Family Physicians). CCR is simpler and more suited for
implementation by small software development companies. In my opinion
it is also a better way of sharing information with the consumer (e.g.,
patient, custodian).

Google adopted the CCR standard for the consumer health data repository. Microsoft adopted both for HealthVault. I think Microsoft
was wiser since it’s the market that finally makes the choice and not
the SDOs, vendors or the government.

You can see some entertaining discussions about this topic at the healthcare blog, specifically:

• CCD Standard Gaining Traction, CCR Fading by John Moore from Chilmark Research,
• Chilmark Needs to Chill Out on CCR/CCD Findings by Vince Kuratis

Both have good points but I tend to agree more with one of them. :-)

A while back ago Dr. David Kibbe posted a blog on this topic as well. Dr.
Kibbe is a frequent blogger on the healthcare blog and shares a blog
with Dr. Brian Klepper at Kibbe & Keppler on Health Care.

Enjoy!

The EHR Guy