Eighteen commercially available electronic health records systems from 17 vendors meet the first-ever criteria for functionality and interoperability of ambulatory EHRs, a federally supported private testing organization announced today.

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) says that its voluntary certification program is designed to bring clarity to the muddled marketplace of clinical health-IT. "These are the first consensus-based standards for electronic health records," said commission chairman Mark Leavitt, M.D. "We encourage physicians to look for the CCHIT seal when purchasing EHR products for their offices."

Leavitt joined Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who is not related, at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., for the announcement of the first batch of certified products. CCHIT took applications in May (see http://tmlr.net/jump/?c=19877&a=296&m=3771&p=0&t=164) and will test products quarterly; the next application period is set for August. "This is a big day," the HHS secretary proclaimed. "This is just the first step along a long, long path," he added. "But it's an important path."

Products meeting the 2006 ambulatory certification criteria are:
Centricity EMR 2005 Version 6.0 (GE Healthcare)
Companion EMR v8.5 (Companion Technologies)
eClinicalWorks Version 7.0, Release 2 (eClinicalWorks)
e-MDs Solution Series 6.1 (e-MDs)
EncounterPRO EHR 5.0 (JMJ Technologies)
EpicCare Ambulatory EMR Spring 2006 (Epic Systems)
HealthMatics Electronic Health Record 2006 and TouchWorks Electronic Health Record 10.1.1 (Allscripts)
Horizon Ambulatory Care Version 9.4 (McKesson)
Intergy EHR v3.00 (Emdeon Practice Services)
Misys EMR 8.0 (Misys Healthcare Systems)
mMD.Net EHR 9.0.9 (Medical Communication Systems)
myNightingale Physician Workstation 5.1 (Nightingale Informatix)
NextGen EMR 5.3 (NextGen Healthcare Information Systems)
Patient Records 9 (Practice Partner, formerly called Physician Micro Systems)
PowerChart 2005.02 (Cerner)
Record 2006 (V 3.0) (MedcomSoft)
WebChart 4.23 (Medical Informatics Engineering)

Allscripts has two products because it acquired A4 Health Systems, maker of HealthMatics, earlier this year.

The commission also granted conditional pre-market certification for two products: Medical Practice Management (MPM) Client/Server 5.5 Service Release 2.1 from LSS Data Systems; and MEDENT 16 from Community Computer Service. "These are new products that are fully tested but are not yet in use in physician offices," Mark Leavitt explained. They can earn full certification once they reach the market.