The Mitre Corporation and the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) have entered the next phase in their collaborative effort to build a testing resource to evaluate compliance of EHRs and networks with interoperability certification criteria. The two organizations are in the process of developing Laika, an open-source software testing framework, distributed via an Apache 2.0 open source license. 

“This project is an important first step in our journey toward testing and certifying the interoperability of health IT systems,” said Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, chair of CCHIT.

According to the McLean, Va.-based Mitre, Laika will make it easier for electronic health record vendors to test and verify that their products support standards-based information exchange capabilities and prepare for CCHIT certification.

Version 1.0 of Laika will be free and publicly available by March 21, 2008, said the company.