Toward the President’s goal of private sector certification of health information technology products, the newly established nonprofit Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) was awarded a three-year contract by the HHS in September 2005 to develop and evaluate certification criteria and create an inspection process for HIT in three areas: ambulatory electronic health records (EHRs) for the office-based physician or provider; inpatient EHRs for hospitals and health systems; and the network components through which they interoperate and share information.
Explore this issue:
January 2007Meanwhile, Congress has entered the fray with separate bills based in the House and Senate, covering such aspects as data storage, recommendations for a national committee to develop standards, and a permanent structure to govern national interoperability standards. The House and Senate versions differed in several other areas, however, and a fall meeting between lawmakers from both branches filed to resolve differences in the bills prior to congressional adjournment for the elections.
Sue Pondrom
©2007 The Triological Society