About Clinical Data Standards
Clinical Data Standards is a technical reference site for healthcare IT professionals, developers, and integration engineers working with clinical data exchange standards. The site documents the major standards, terminology systems, and regulatory frameworks that underpin health information exchange in the United States and internationally.
Purpose
Healthcare interoperability involves a complex ecosystem of standards, each serving different use cases. HL7 FHIR provides modern RESTful APIs for structured clinical data. DICOM handles medical imaging. HL7 v2.x remains the most widely deployed messaging standard in hospital systems. Understanding how these standards relate to each other -- and to the regulatory requirements set by ONC and CMS -- is essential for anyone building or maintaining health IT systems. This site consolidates that information into a single, navigable reference.
What This Site Covers
- Standards -- Technical overviews of HL7 FHIR (R4/R5), DICOM (PS3.x), and HL7 v2.x messaging including data models, services, and API specifications
- Guides -- Healthcare interoperability regulations (TEFCA, 21st Century Cures Act, information blocking rules) and clinical terminology systems (ICD-10, SNOMED CT, LOINC, RxNorm, CPT, NDC)
- References -- Structured lookup tables for FHIR resources by category and maturity level, and HL7 v2 message types with trigger events and segment structures
Intended Audience
This resource is designed for health IT developers, integration engineers, clinical informaticists, EHR implementation teams, and healthcare data architects. Whether you are building FHIR-based applications, configuring HL7 v2 interfaces, or evaluating DICOM conformance for imaging systems, this site provides the technical context needed to work effectively with these standards.
Authoritative Sources
Content on this site is based on the following authoritative sources:
- HL7 FHIR Specification (hl7.org/fhir) -- R4 (v4.0.1) and R5 (v5.0.0)
- DICOM Standard (dicomstandard.org) -- PS3.1 through PS3.22
- HL7 Version 2.x Standard (hl7.org) -- v2.5.1, v2.7, v2.8, v2.9
- ONC Health IT Certification Program (healthit.gov)
- 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255)
- Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA)
- SNOMED International (snomed.org)
- Regenstrief Institute / LOINC (loinc.org)
- National Library of Medicine / RxNorm (nlm.nih.gov)
- WHO ICD-10 / CMS ICD-10-CM/PCS
Disclaimer
This site provides technical reference information about healthcare data standards and interoperability specifications. It does not constitute professional, legal, or regulatory advice. Standards evolve and are subject to revision by their maintaining organizations. Always consult the official specifications and current regulatory guidance for authoritative information.