Document relationships in CDA header

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Submitted by: Frank Oemig	Revision date: 29.09.09
Submitted date: 16.07.09 (proposal), 29.09.09 (formal proposal)	Change request ID: <<Change Request ID>>

Issue

• Currently, relationships between documents can be established in two ways. Either as a general replacement in the header (relatedDocument) or as external links within the body. The first only provides some means to handle versioning of documents. The second can be used from specific entries only. Therefore, CDA as of now does not provide any means to refer to other documents in general.

Recommendation

• Add a new relationship to the header for general relationships. Perhaps similar to what has been done with reference?

Rationale

• One would like to indicate that the document as a whole refers to a set of other documents. The typeCode should indicate the relationship to those documents.

Resolution

Sept 9, 2010: Unclear which additional relationship types are needed for relatedDocument in the Header. Will close this for now, but ask Frank to request specific types based on known use cases/requirements. Opposed: 0; abstain: 0; in favor: 14.