scope:

The scope of the CDA is the standardization of clinical documents for exchange. http://www.hl7.org/v3ballot/html/foundationdocuments/cda/cda.htm (4 of 187)8/30/2004 7:50:20 AM DRAFT2008 HL7 Clinical Document Architecture, Release 2.0 The data format of clinical documents outside of the exchange context is not addressed in this specification. The clinical content of CDA documents is defined in the RIM. CDA documents can be transmitted in HL7 messages designed to transfer clinical documents. The specification for such messages is outside the scope of the CDA, although this standard does specify how to package CDA documents within HL7 messages (see CDA Document Exchange in HL7 Messages (§ 2.2 )). The CDA does not specify the creation or management of documents, only their exchange markup. While it may be possible to directly use the CDA Schema in a document authoring environment, such use is outside the CDA specification. Document management is critically interdependent with the CDA specifications, but the specification of document management messages is outside the scope of the CDA. (For more on this, see Relationship of the CDA to HL7 Messaging Standards (§ 1.2.6 )).