Its primary use case is to provide a snapshot in time containing the pertinent clinical, demographic, and administrative data for a specific patient.
[4][failed verification] The public library is relatively limited of reference CCDs available for developers to examine how to encode medical data using the structure and format of the CCD.
[5] The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has produced a sample CCD with valid data that is available for public download.
To be certified for this federal program, an electronic health record must be able to generate a CCD (or equivalent CCR) that has the sections of allergies, medications, problems, and laboratory results, in addition to patient header information.
[citation needed] When ambulatory and inpatient care providers attest that they have achieved the first stage of meaningful use, they document that they have tested their capability to "exchange clinical information and patient summary record", which is a core objective of the program.
Several tools for the development, testing, validation and implementation have been advanced to support CCD and C-CDA use in the second stage of meaningful use which has helped the standard mature in its capability to transmit data between care providers and for other purposes.