First Draft of ONC Test Scenario Open for Comment

On September 4, 2012 the ONC issued the Health Information Technology: Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2014 Edition; Revisions to the Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology Final Rule. The rule changed the name of the Permanent Certification Program to the ONC HIT Certification Program. The ONC HIT Certification Program became fully operational on October 4, 2012. In this new program product testing and certification were separated. Two different entities will perform the tasks.

The 2014 Edition Test Method was formally approved by the ONC on December 14, 2012 after several waves of criteria were published for comment and approved. It is now effective for use in the ONC HIT Certification Program. The notice was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 2, 2013.

Now the ONC is looking for public input on test scenarios for the 2014 Edition Test Scenarios. The first test scenario is for EHR Interoperability: Intake. A test scenario is a set of unit-based procedures linked in a clinically plausible test flow using test data threaded in a logical fashion. The ONC will be developing additional test scenarios, but is first asking for public input on a sample draft test scenario for EHR Interoperability: Intake. Specifically they are looking for input on the draft test scenario’s concept, structure, usability, and clinical plausibility.

Input and comments should be emailed to ONC.Certification@hhs.gov with “2014 Test Scenarios” in the subject line. After ONC reviews feedback from the public, they will update the test scenarios as appropriate for optional use in testing against the 2014 Edition Standards & Certification Criteria. Once the scenarios are final, they will be optional for use in testing for certification to the 2014 Edition certification criteria under the ONC HIT Certification Program by the ONC-ACBs and ATLs.

For more information on test scenario procedures, see the 2014 Edition Test Scenario Procedure Overview. The document document describes the structure of the test scenario procedure for evaluating conformance of electronic health record (EHR) technology to the certification criteria defined in the ONC’s September 2012 final rule.