Decision support

Compare standards by the job they do

Place up to three profiles side by side. Focus on architectural role, evidence, and the first limitation to test—not on finding a single all-purpose standard.

Working set

Choose profiles

1 of 3 selected

PCORnet CDMData model / schema

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Decision lens

Compare roles before you compare maturity.

The useful question is not “Which standard wins?” It is “Which job must this part of the architecture perform, and what remains uncovered?”

Start with the job
Decide whether you need guidance, a domain payload, exchange, semantics, governance, or a reusable release.
Map lifecycle reach
Use the matrix to see where each profile has a direct role. A filled cell is coverage, not a quality score.
Test the boundary
Read what each option leaves unresolved before judging maturity, confidence, or implementation fit.

Three-part assessment

See the reach, the gaps, and the evidence.

Read left to right. Lifecycle reach comes first; maturity remains an editorial roll-up, not certification.

01 · Lifecycle reach

Where each profile contributes directly

Coverage shows a recorded role at that readiness stage. It does not imply end-to-end implementation.

Readiness-stage coverage for PCORnet Common Data Model
Profile	Plan	Acquire	Harmonize	Exchange	Learn + reuse
PCORnet CDMData model / schema	PCORnet Common Data Model has no direct role recorded in Plan.	PCORnet Common Data Model has no direct role recorded in Acquire.	PCORnet Common Data Model has a direct role in Harmonize.	PCORnet Common Data Model has no direct role recorded in Exchange.	PCORnet Common Data Model has a direct role in Learn + reuse.

Direct role recordedNo direct role recorded

02 · Boundaries

What each option does not cover

These are design boundaries, not faults. Use them to identify the companion layers your architecture still needs.

PCORnet CDM

Stage boundary: No direct role is recorded for Plan, Acquire, Exchange.
Known limitation: The CDM deliberately preserves source values and does not itself impose all plausibility or consistency edits; ETL fidelity and study-specific fitness remain separate gates.

03 · Detailed assessment

Check the fit and evidence behind the map

Use the source, status, and limitation together. A higher maturity label does not erase a scope mismatch.

Detailed comparison of PCORnet Common Data Model
Assessment	PCORnet CDMPCORnet Common Data Model
Purpose & coverage	A relational representation of EHR, claims, prescribing, laboratory, patient-reported, and related data for distributed patient-centered research. Best fitAnalyses that must run consistently across PCORnet partners while each institution retains operational control of local data.
Readiness stages	HarmonizeLearn + reuse
AI-ready contribution	A common multi-site feature surface helps reproducibility, but site heterogeneity, missingness, refresh timing, label construction, and distributed-learning governance remain material.
First limitation to test	The CDM deliberately preserves source values and does not itself impose all plausibility or consistency edits; ETL fidelity and study-specific fitness remain separate gates.
Evidence	E1 + E2 High confidence Formal statusPCORnet CDM v7.0; ancillary checks and value sets version independently ReviewSource-checked
Maturity	Established Operational distributed-research model with separately versioned checks and value sets
Sources & links	PCORnet CDM specification and checks (opens in a new tab)Read full profile