The CCHIT Certified program was an independently developed certification that included a rigorous inspection of an EHR's integrated functionality, interoperability and security using criteria developed by CCHIT's broadly representative, expert work groups.
In September 2005, CCHIT was awarded a 3-year contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and evaluate the certification criteria and inspection process for EHRs and the networks through which they interoperate.
CCHIT focused its first efforts on ambulatory EHR products[2] for the office-based physician and provider and began commercial certification in May 2006.
CCHIT then assessed the need for, and potential benefit of, certifying EHR for specialty medicine, special care settings, and special-needs populations.
[4][5] CCHIT, in a collaboration with the MITRE Corporation, also developed an open-source program called Laika to test EHR software for compliance with federally named interoperability standards.