HIMSS announced a new testing and certification program at the HIMSS15 conference to assess secure and reliable transfer of data among electronic health record systems, health information exchanges, and health information services providers. This new program, ConCert by HIMSS™, addresses one of the biggest issues in healthcare information technology today: many IT systems are incapable of connecting with one another, requiring complex and expensives interfaces to be built every time two systems need to interconnect.
“ConCert by HIMSS will attest to secure and reliable health information exchange between EHR and HIE products for both Direct and Query-based exchange,” said Joyce Sensmeier, RN-BC, MS, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, FAAN, vice president, informatics, HIMSS North America. “This voluntary testing and certification program will increase clarity in the marketplace and create the ‘pull’ for interoperability that we are lacking today by simplifying the process. Providers will now be able to identify certified interoperable products. And vendors that are certified through this program will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace."
Safe and reliable data transfer is a must for high quality care. And by promoting product certification using interoperability standards recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (“ONC”), organizations can be assured that data can be securely accessed and shared across various states and systems. iPatientCare is the first company to earned this certification--but industy leaders like Cerner, Corepoint Health, Greenway Health and Infor Healthcare have committed to completing the testing process by the end of this year.
