Laika (EHR Testing Framework)

Laika is an open source Electronic Health Record (EHR) testing framework. Laika analyzes and reports on the interoperability capabilities of EHR systems. This includes the testing for certification of EHR software products and networks. Laika is licensed under an Apache 2.0 open source license.

Laika is designed to verify the input and output of EHR data against the standards and criteria identified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT). Laika will be used by the CCHIT to perform part of the interoperability certification inspection of EHRs in 2008. Laika will initially support testing of the HL7/ASTM Continuity of Care Document (CCD) constrained by the HITSP C32 version 2.1 specification. Laika uses the Ruby on Rails framework, the Java programming language, the open source MySQL database, and several Web 2.0 JavaScript libraries including Scriptaculous and Prototype.

Laika is an active collaborative effort between CCHIT and The MITRE Corporation. CCHIT is leading the functional requirements definition of the Laika testing framework. MITRE is leading the technical software design and is prototyping the software service.

The Certification Commission is a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate adoption of health information technology in the United States. MITRE is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that manages three Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and works in partnership with the US government applying systems engineering and advanced technology to address issues of critical national importance in the USA.

Laika is named after the dog and first living animal to enter earth orbit, paving the way for human space flight.

External links

* [http://projectlaika.org/ The Laika open source project website]
* [http://www.cchit.org/ The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology website]
* [http://www.mitre.org/ The MITRE Corporation website]