What is CCHITs charter under the HHS contract? Has its original mission changed?
No. CCHIT’s mission is unchanged. It is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable healthcare information technology throughout the United States by creating an efficient, credible, sustainable mechanism for the certification of healthcare IT products. Certification is an important part of HHS vision for transforming the health care system, in part through the widespread adoption of interoperable HIT – allowing EHRs to be linked through a system that protects privacy while ensuring care providers have the data they need to deliver care of the highest quality with safety, cost-efficiency, and convenience. Certification will help increase the transparency of the EHR marketplace and reduce risk for physicians and hospitals that purchase and implement HIT. To accomplish this goal, CCHIT will collaborate with the newly created American Health Information Community (AHIC), and those organizations awarded HHS contracts for standards harmonization, prototype development for a national
