Announcements

Updated 3/30/2026

We wanted to share a brief update on recent and upcoming CARIN Blue Button Implementation Guide activity. The CARIN Blue Button 2.2.0 IG update was just published today. It can be found here: http://hl7.org/fhir/us/carin-bb/STU2.2

STU Update – STU 2.2.0
STU 2.2.0 reflects the outcomes of February peer review and is intended to be a compatible update for implementers. The focus of this release is on technical refinement rather than functional change.

Key highlights include:

• Alignment with US Core versions 7
• Technical corrections and clarifications
• Relaxed constraints to improve implementability

Interested parties can see the changes listed in the change notes here: https://hl7.org/fhir/us/carin-bb/STU2.2/en/change_notes.html

Looking Ahead – STU 3 Ballot
We are also beginning to plan for the next major release. STU 3 is anticipated to go to HL7 ballot in September and will include breaking changes.

Areas of focus for STU 3 include:

• Structural and technical changes that are not backward compatible
• Terminology updates, including moving Code Systems to the THO

We will share additional detail as ballot preparation progresses and will be looking for member input during that process.

Please reach out if you have questions or would like to participate in review or ballot preparation.

Welcome to the CARIN Alliance

The CARIN Alliance is a bipartisan, multi-sector collaborative working to advance consumer-directed exchange of health information.

Overview

Convened by David Blumenthal, David Brailer, Aneesh Chopra, and Mike Leavitt in early 2016, its members include leading U.S. organizations in three categories:

• Consumers – Consumer advocates, purchasers, and others.

• HIPAA covered entities – Providers, plans and clearinghouses, and their business associates.

• HIPAA non-covered entities – Consumer-facing digital health apps, devices and services, consumer platforms, researchers, and infrastructure firms including standards setting organizations, identity providers, certifiers, and data exchange networks.

 To learn more, click here.