The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) had been the exclusive testing and certification authority for EHRs since ONC anointed the non-profit in 2005.

The ONC has now tapped both organizations to certify whether commercial EHR systems can deliver services required by the government's meaningful use criteria.

Drummond, based in Austin, Texas, offers interoperability and conformance testing, among other services.

Although the award marks its first foray into EHR testing, Drummond's experience in health care dates to 1999 when the company was founded, according to company officials. That year, it was chosen by a state health care consortium to study public key infrastructure technologies.

Drummond began to pursue the EHR certification contract in 2009 after being approached by numerous EHR software and services companies, according to the firm.

In preparing for the role, Drummond conducted pilot certification tests on EHR software, worked with a health care consultant and attended industry conference discussions on meaningful use.

"Those items were instrumental in getting our understanding of the software and its usage up to speed," said Beth Morrow, co-founder and president of Drummond Group.

Morrow also noted that that Drummond certifies for other organizations and through its own Drummond Certified program.

Its experience in other areas of certification and testing will benefit the EHR meaningful use program, according to Morrow. "We understand the importance of impartiality at a personal level," she said.

In 2006, Drummond was selected to manage interoperability testing for the Liberty Alliance, a group of IT firms pursuing standards for identity management. That work has been folded into a current role testing for the Kantara Initiative, which seeks to harmonize identity systems.

Drummond has also been involved in testing global synchronized catalogs of data and the security of messaging that supports large volumes of financial transactions, Morrow said.

Morrow said Drummond Group will be able to ramp up to handle EHR vendor demand. "In surveys we have taken from those contacting us, we discovered that not everyone is ready to test today," she said.

"It is our belief that this market has been learning about meaningful use criteria just as we have," she added. "Some are ready now but some are not. So we feel comfortable that our trained personnel will meet their needs when they are ready to test."