2026 US Quality Core Implementation Guide
0.5.0 - release

2026 US Quality Core Implementation Guide - Downloaded Version 0.5.0 See the Directory of published versions

## Relationship with US Core and QI-Core

### Relationship with US Core

The profiles defined in US Quality Core are derived from US Core profiles whenever possible. As a result, conforming to US Core automatically satisfies a significant subset of the conformance requirements of US Quality Core. US Quality Core conformance involves supporting certain additional data elements not required by US Core, because they are needed for quality measurement and reporting.

Because US Quality Core profiles derive from US Core profiles where possible, wherever US Core defines a binding, the US Quality Core profiles inherit that binding. US Quality Core may specify additional constraints, such as requiring a binding that is only preferred in the US Core base profile, but in general, the US Quality Core profiles use the same bindings as US Core.

### Search Expectations and US Core

The US Quality Core CapabilityStatements identify the RESTful API capabilities specifically needed for in-scope USCDI+ Quality V1 data. They do not repeat every US Core search expectation. For the search selection approach and conformance details, see API Requirements.

### Relationship with QI-Core

As described in the Background section of this guide, US Quality Core is a direct descendant of QI-Core. This version of US Quality Core is derived from QI-Core 6.0.0 and carries forward the QI-Core profile set to support continuity for existing QI-Core implementers. Carrying forward a profile does not mean every inherited profile is required for US Quality Core conformance.

Only profiles that include at least one USCDI+ Quality-flagged element are in scope for this version's conformance requirements. The Summary List of In-Scope Profiles for Conformance identifies the profiles that SHALL be supported. Profiles inherited from QI-Core 6.0.0 that do not include USCDI+ Quality-flagged elements are listed in the Summary List of Out-of-Scope Profiles for Conformance; they are included in this guide to ease adoption and preserve alignment with QI-Core, but they are not required for USCDI+ Quality V1 conformance.

Several QI-Core-derived materials in this guide, including the model information and CQL pattern content, are informational. They are retained to support the quality measurement tooling ecosystem and to make the relationship to QI-Core clear, but they do not add conformance requirements beyond those stated in the conformance pages, the USCDI+ Quality mapping, and the CapabilityStatements.

See the Scope, USCDI+ Quality, and Change Log sections of this guide for additional details on the scope of changes made from QI-Core 6.0.0.