What are CDA “levels”?
CDA “levels” are ways of describing the degree of semantic interoperability of a CDA document. Digression on “Semantic Interoperability”: Full semantic interoperability is when a document can drive an arbitrary process, for example, decision support, even if it wasn’t designed for that application. So a document with full semantic interoperability can be created for one purpose, like a public health report or for transfer of care, but can be interpreted by other applications with the same degree of confidence that a human would use the information. So, the concept of “levels” applied to CDA means the degree to which a receiver can expect to drive automated processes. A Level One CDA sets no expectations beyond the standard header metadata and human-readability for the body. A Level Two CDA means that the body is in XML and that the sections and sub-sections are coded. A Level Three CDA contains the same expectations as Levels One and Two, plus it contains some coded information within
