Certification Commission and MITRE collaborate on open source health IT testing resource

Software to Evaluate Compatibility of Systems Will Be Free and Publically Available

CHICAGO, IL and McLEAN, VA - September 10, 2007 - Today, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHITSM) and the MITRE Corporation announced a collaborative relationship to begin building a testing resource to evaluate compliance of electronic health records (EHR) and networks with certification criteria for interoperability. This new initiative will make it easier for health information technology companies to add standards-based information exchange capabilities to their products and prepare those products for certification. The testing software will be developed under an open source license so that it is free and publically available, and the Certification Commission will use the software running on a secure platform during its inspection of a product's compliance.

"There is broad agreement that we need a national resource of this type in order to make faster progress toward interoperability," said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., Commission chair. "It will be a big job, so we hope many others will collaborate: health IT companies, government entities and others -- that's why CCHIT and MITRE chose the open source project model. It's in sync with the Commission's transparent, volunteer-based processes as well."

The first focus of the project is expected to be a tool to verify standards compliance of a Continuity of Care Document (CCD) sent or received by EHRs. "The ASTM/HL7 CCD is a core element in several of the AHIC Use Cases, and is becoming the standard for exchanging patient summary information," said Leavitt. The Certification Commission and MITRE have agreed upon a project schedule that will have the CCD verification tool ready in time for CCHIT's 2008 pilot testing and certification launch.

"This collaboration advances the potential for extraordinary teamwork around one of the most important public interest concerns of our time - EHR and network interoperability", said Rob Jensen, MITRE's executive director for Healthcare. "It's a complicated major challenge and we share CCHIT's enthusiasm that others will join in the project through the open source model."

The Certification Commission and MITRE - both independent, nonprofit organizations - have a similar vision for the development of robust, interoperable health IT and a common mission in supporting the government, private enterprise and the public in attaining that goal. To achieve that, the initiative is designed as an open source project. With MITRE's guidance and oversight, any individual or organization is free to propose contributions to the project's engineering technology. The resulting work will be freely and publicly available. Health IT companies of all sizes will be able to take advantage of this shared resource as they are developing new products.

"We believe the Certification Commission's collaboration with MITRE in this open source initiative will significantly advance interoperability, with the goal of encouraging investment in products that will improve the quality and efficiency of care", said Sam Karp, vice president of Programs at the California HealthCare Foundation. The Foundation previously supported the development of the Commission's EHR testing processes.

About the Certification Commission

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been officially named by the federal government as a "recognized certification body" for health information technology products and networks. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable certification program. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry. More information on the Commission and CCHIT CertifiedSM products is available at www.cchit.org.

"CCHITSM" and "CCHIT CertifiedSM" are service marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

About the MITRE Corporation

The MITRE Corporation is a private, independent not-for-profit organization chartered to work solely in the public interest. MITRE manages three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers sponsored by the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service. As a national resource, MITRE applies its expertise in systems engineering, information technology, operational concepts, and enterprise modernization. MITRE's Healthcare Division is dedicated to improving the quality of our nation's healthcare through the transformation of healthcare enterprises.

For more information about The MITRE Corporation and its work, visit www.mitre.org.