Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL) Data Challenge

By Steven Posnack, M.S., M.H.S., Dustin Charles & Wes Barker
Twitter: @ONC_HealthIT
Steven’s Twitter: @HealthIT_Policy

The ONC Certified Health IT Product List better known as CHPL (pronounced “chapel”) is the authoritative, comprehensive listing of health information technology (health IT) products that have been tested and certified under the ONC Health IT Certification Program. Health IT products are listed on the CHPL after eligible components have been successfully tested by an ONC Authorized Testing Laboratory (ONC-ATL) and certified by an ONC Authorized Certification Body (ONC-ACB).

The CHPL contains detailed data on certified health IT, such as the certification criteria to which the health IT has been certified, usability testing results, and non-conformities, including any surveillance activities and their corrective action plans/resolution. As of May 2018, the CHPL has more than 300 listings for active 2015 Edition certified health IT products.

In the past, much of the testing and certification data was unstructured, making analysis of that data difficult. In 2016, to allow CHPL users to have better access to the data, ONC updated the CHPL with structured data and discrete formats. For users who want greater access to the data, the CHPL has a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and downloadable XML files containing the complete data available.

Now that this data is more available and easily computable, ONC wants to see what the public can do with it. The goal of ONC’s CHPL Data Challenge is to encourage software developers to make use of this data in ways that can enrich health care providers, health care consumers, and the health IT community’s understanding of certified health IT. Please note, only the 2015 Edition certified health IT products would have complete data available in these structured formats.

To enter ONC’s CHPL Data Challenge, visit the challenge web page and follow the instructions. Prizes will be awarded to individuals or entities whose submissions best meet the challenge evaluation criteria. A total of $40,000 in prizes will be available. To be eligible for award, submission must include:

  • A slide deck of no more than seven slides describing how the solution functions and addresses the application requirements
  • A video demo (five minute maximum) demonstrating use of the solution
  • An instructions document
  • A copy of the software application
  • Willingness to perform a live demo at ONC’s request

Submissions are due October 31, 2018.

Additional challenge details and a Q&A opportunity will be covered at ONC’s Informal CHPL Data Challenge Webinar on August 1, 2018 at 2pm ET. Register for the webinar.

This post was originally published on the Health IT Buzz and is syndicated here with permission.