CCOW is the acronym for Clinical Context Object Working Group.  It is the HL7 standard for exchanging context.

As with Messaging Integration, Vendor A, who provide the imaging software, does not require knowledge of the lab or EKG system from Vendor B, but can use the information exchange as defined by the CCOW (Clinical Context Object Working group) standard.  CCOW is not only a blessing for a user who wants to integrate different applications on a single desktop, it also enables vendors who are consolidating and offer software packages that were developed by different companies to show a somewhat integrated view.

CCOW requires a context manager, which is software that functions as the "traffic cop" and exchanges the context information to all applications that are registered with the context manager.

The major application for CCOW is the single-sign-on, whereby a user only has to log on once because the CCOW protocol exchanges the logon information to all other registered applications.