CDA R3 NonXMLBody-Text Cardinality

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Submitted by: Sean McIlvenna (Alschuler Associates, LLC)	Revision date: 11/20/2009
Submitted date: 11/20/2009	Change request ID: <<Change Request ID>>

Issue

Currently, the nonXMLBody only allows a single text element which allows only a single document/image to be referenced or embedded within the CDA document.

Recommendation

• The nonXMLBody element should allow multiple text elements (change the cardinality to 1..*) allowing multiple documents to be embedded and/or referenced.
• It could be assumed that the order of the text elements also specifies the preferred order of the documents.

Rationale

The Unstructured Documents work group has discussed the scenario where some types of scanners may represent each "page" of the scan job as a separate document/image, which means that several documents/images together represent a single "whole" document.

Resolution

March 10, 2010: RIM act.text cardinality is 0..1, so would require a RIM change. Changing to 0..* would open the possibility for inserting many documents, whereas the intent is that it just be one. Recommend that the nonXML attachment be in a format that can hold multiple pages. Abstain: 0; Opposed: 0; In favor: 7.