CDA

CDA is an acronym that can refer to several organizations, standards, and credentials across different fields. The meaning depends on context, but some of the most widely recognized uses are.

Canadian Dental Association: The national professional association of dentists in Canada. Founded in 1902, the CDA represents dentists, provides continuing education and ethics guidance, and advocates for oral health policy. It publishes the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association (JCDA).

California Dental Association: A state-level professional organization serving dentists in California. It offers member services, professional education, advocacy, and publishes the California Dental Association Journal.

Clinical Document Architecture: HL7's standard for the structure and semantics of clinical documents exchanged between health information systems. CDA defines the structure of documents, typically encoded in XML, with a header containing metadata and a body with the clinical content. It supports interoperability for discharge summaries, progress notes, and other documents.

Child Development Associate: A professional credential for early childhood educators in the United States, administered by the Council for Professional Recognition. It recognizes competencies in areas such as child development, curriculum planning, safety, and family engagement; requirements usually include coursework, an exhibit portfolio, and supervised fieldwork.

Other uses exist in government, industry, and education, reflecting the breadth of the acronym. When encountering CDA, consider the domain and accompanying context to determine the intended meaning.