WASHINGTON – The National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking firms to analyze whether certain health IT standards are suitable for federal health information priorities, including meaningful use, the nationwide health information network and population health and public health.

The project will test and analyze existing standards that support health information exchange, security and quality measurement, according to a Dec. 18 notice outlining the project.

NIST is pursuing the project as part of a role assigned to it by the HITECH Act to study and test technical standards pertinent to establishing a nationwide e-health system.

The notice said NIST’s search for vendors was a part of its Healthcare IT Testing Infrastructure Project, under which it plans to offer services to validate health data exchange standards and test health work flows that use multiple messaging and document standards.

NIST will also supply feedback loop to healthcare vendors and providers to improve use of the health IT standards.

Vendors selected for the analysis project will design tools and analyze whether a standard has broad uses in areas of importance to the government’s efforts in health IT. Such evaluation would test whether a standard is “free from ambiguities, errors, inconsistencies, omissions, and to the extent possible, meet intended requirements,” according to the notice.

Contractors will also develop conformance and interoperability test data sets, testing tools and other testing material to assure that it meets requirements.