Substance abuse treatment intake has its own shape. The instruments are well-known (AUDIT, DAST-10, ASI, NIDA Quick Screen), the regulatory environment is non-trivial (42 CFR Part 2 lives next door to HIPAA, and they do not say the same things), and the patient flow tends to blend medication-assisted treatment with counseling notes. A FHIR Questionnaire tool that fits this kind of program has to do more than render text inputs.
This walk-through pulls together the FHIR Questionnaire tools that come up most in 2026 substance abuse programs. For deeper FHIR walkthroughs the broader catalog has the surrounding context.
The architectural framing lives in the complete guide to FHIR Questionnaire engines in 2026 if you want to start from first principles.
What a SUD-Ready Questionnaire Tool Has to Do
A useful tool for substance abuse treatment intake needs four capabilities working together:
- Calculated scoring for AUDIT and DAST-10, with the total visible in the QuestionnaireResponse.
- Branching for follow-up modules when a screening threshold is crossed.
- Terminology binding to RxNorm and SNOMED CT for medications and substances.
- A clean separation between the intake data and 42 CFR Part 2 protected information.
Most tools cover the first three. The fourth is where general-purpose form engines tend to be silent, and where teams have to either add a tagging layer or rely on access controls outside the form engine.
The Tools Worth Knowing in 2026
The shortlist below is the four tools that come up most in SUD programs and one open-source option that comes up in research deployments.
- Formbox. A FHIR-native form builder with SDC rendering, calculated expressions, and clean extraction. The audit-ready QuestionnaireResponse format is useful when a state regulator asks for source records.
- Aidbox FHIR Forms. The same use case as Formbox plus a tightly coupled FHIR backend. Useful for programs that want one vendor for both layers.
- LHC-Forms. The NLM-backed open-source renderer. AUDIT and DAST-10 implementations are widely available in the LOINC-published Questionnaire bank.
- Smile Digital Health Forms. A commercial offering with strong terminology binding, useful when the program is integrating with a hospital EHR that already uses Smile.
- Beda EMR Forms. A practical SDC layer used in production outpatient deployments, with enableWhen handling that holds up for branching into MAT-specific items.
Where the Choice Tips for SUD Specifically
Three factors push the decision one way or the other:
- 42 CFR Part 2 posture. A program that segregates Part 2 data tightly will appreciate a form tool that flags fields rather than pretending it can enforce policy.
- MAT integration. If buprenorphine prescribing is in scope, the intake form should write RxNorm-coded answers that an EHR can ingest without manual mapping.
- Telehealth fit. Tools with mobile-friendly rendering hold up better when intake happens through a patient portal.
For the broader picture across behavioral health programs, the Top 6 SDC form builders for behavioral health clinics in 2026 covers neighboring use cases. For the specific case of eating disorder intake (which has overlap with SUD in adolescent care), Top 5 SDC form engines for eating disorder clinic intake walks through that vertical.
How to Pilot Without Buying the Wrong Thing
Pick one program (one site, one cohort) and run a real pilot with AUDIT and DAST-10. Render the Questionnaires, branch into the follow-up modules, calculate the totals, and check that the QuestionnaireResponse contains the fields a billing review would ask for. The tools that pass that on the first try are the ones worth the procurement conversation.
Sources
- 42 CFR Part 2 Final Rule fact sheet - Government fact sheet, HHS OCR + SAMHSA, 2024
- Using 42 CFR Part 2 revisions to integrate SUD treatment information into EHR at a safety net health system - Peer-reviewed study, JAMIA via PMC, 2024
- QuestionnaireResponse-extract OperationDefinition - HL7 spec, HL7 International, 2025