MITRE strategic services to support ONC health IT certification using AI validation (ONCLAIVE) — a federal contract (USAspending)

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is the organization within HHS responsible for standards and certification across health information technology, including electronic health records. "Certification" — checking whether software used in healthcare meets defined requirements — underpins the safe exchange of patient information and interoperability (the ability of different systems to exchange data correctly). This contract procures strategic services to bring AI validation (confirming that a model behaves as intended) and exploration (assessing where it can usefully be applied) into that certification work, advanced under the project name ONCLAIVE.

What makes this contract notable is that, in a field as sensitive as healthcare, a government agency is systematically examining how to incorporate AI into certification — a public quality-assurance mechanism. The awardee, MITRE Corporation, is a nonprofit that supports federal research and development and provides neutral, technical expertise that the government does not always hold directly. Bringing AI validation methods into certification points toward making quality checks for health IT more efficient and precise.

Viewed more broadly, this contract is one example, visible through federal procurement data (USAspending), where health IT policy, AI validation, and public certification intersect. Tracking who is using federal funds, for what purpose, and at what scale offers a way to follow policy trends in health IT and AI adoption. Note that any concrete results or evaluation outcomes from this contract are not stated in the source.