Standards Summary

Cypress is an open-source testing platform that health information technology (IT) vendors use to certify their electronic health records (EHRs) and certified health IT modules (CEHRT) for electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) calculations. It is an official testing tool within the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT Certification Program. As part of certification, Cypress generates synthetic patient data for selected published eCQMs and evaluates whether EHR systems and health IT modules can correctly capture, import, calculate, filter, and report those measures.

Cypress Validation Utility + Calculation Check (CVU+) enables real-world testing by allowing organizations to run tests using their own patient data. It supports validation against CMS Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Implementation Guides (IGs) and performs eCQM calculations with highlighted measure logic. 

Measure Authoring Development Integrated Environment (MADiE) is a software tool that makes creating and testing electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs)/digital quality measures (dQMs) easier by combining both steps in one application.

MADiE allows eCQM developers to author eCQMs using Quality Improvement (QI)-Core, the Quality Data Model (QDM), and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) to test and verify eCQM behavior. MADiE helps eCQM developers execute eCQM logic against the constructed test cases to provide users with information to evaluate if the eCQM logic aligns with the intent of the eCQM.

The Value Set Authority Center (VSAC) is a tool and repository for creating and managing value sets. It serves as the official source for value sets used in CMS electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and digital quality measures (dQMs). The National Library of Medicine maintains the VSAC and offers access through web browsers and application programming interfaces (APIs).

The VSAC offers downloadable files for each measure release. These files include complete value sets for eCQMs and dQMs, the Binding Parameter Specification, and the complete lists of Direct Reference Codes, retired codes, and utilized code systems. The VSAC also provides tools that let users search existing value sets, create new ones, and keep value sets aligned with current terminology versions. Users must obtain a free Unified Medical Language System license to access the VSAC.