The Canine Health Information Center, also known as CHIC, is a centralized canine health database jointly sponsored by the AKC/Canine Health Foundation (AKC/CHF) and the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). Working with participating Parent Clubs, the CHIC database provides a resource for breeders and owners of purebred dogs to research and maintain information on the health issues in specific breeds.

Core to the CHIC philosophy is the realization that each breed has different health concerns. Not all diseases have known modes of inheritance, nor do all diseases have screening tests. Some screening tests are based on phenotypic evaluation, others on genetic testing.
With all these variables, a key element of CHIC is to customize or tailor the CHIC requirements to the needs of each breed. These unique requirements are established through input from the parent club prior to the breed's entry into the CHIC program.

Breed specific requirements typically consist of the inherited diseases that are of the greatest concern and for which some screening test is available.

Each parent club also drives specific screening protocols. As an example, one parent club may allow cardiac exams to be performed by a general practitioner. Another parent club may require the exam to be performed by a board certified cardiologist.

A dog is automatically granted a CHIC # when the results of the specific health-screening required for its breed are registered with OFA and the Canine Eye Registry Foundation (CERF), whether or not the dog passed all the tests, as long as the owner agrees to share the results publicly on  the CHIC database. 
Simply clicking on the name of any dog with a CHIC number will reveal the results of all of that dog's health-screening, including whether the dog passed or failed each required test. On the other hand, if a dog does not have a CHIC number, there is no way to tell whether the dog has not been tested, or has failed a particular required test.

This "pass/fail" registration is a critical component of the CHIC program. In any breed and no matter what the particular genetic problem, breeding for improvement can ONLY be accomplished by public disclosure of the status of all breeding animals.

It's important for both buyers and breeders to understand that the removal of all animals "affected" with a particular problem (especially if it is both widespread in a breed and not a life-threatening condition) may NOT be desirable, as it could significantly reduce the genetic diversity critical for a breed's overall well-being. 
In these cases, good animal husbandry practice dictates that the best course of action is to make breeding decisions based on the "whole dog", with an eye toward improvement.

In breeds where elbow dysplasia is rampant, for example, breeders may choose to breed a quality animal who passed all other health screening but was diagnosed with grade 1 (mild) elbow dysplasia to an animal  with normal elbows from a line where most individuals are also testing normal, and select the offspring with normal elbows for breeding in the next generation. 
By utilizing this technique, improvement  will ultimately result while critical genetic diversity and overall quality is still maintained throughout the breed. This improvement, however, can ONLY be effected if breeders  are willing to make information on as many dogs as possible publicly available without fear of repercussion from their peers. (Unfortunately, this is an area where, in many breeds, progress still needs to be made!)

On  the other hand, in breeds where a particular problem is not widespread, use of affected dogs for breeding would not be a wise choice - it is much easier to eliminate a problem from a breed before it becomes widespread, where removal of a few animals from the gene pool will not negatively affect the gene pool to any great degree.

Both of the above scenarios for good animal husbandry, of course, depend upon a public database of health information that breeders may access in order to make the most informed breeding decisions possible, and that is what the CHIC program provides.

For the conscientious puppy buyer, the CHIC database allows them to make informed decisions as well.

For example, in a breed where the incidence of elbow dysplasia is high, a puppy who is the result of a breeding between a bitch with a CHIC # reflecting grade 1 elbow dysplasia and a dog with a CHIC # reflecting normal elbows from a strong OFA elbow bloodline is a far better bet (even if one "only wants a pet") than a pup from a breeding where neither parent was screened. 
Without CHIC #s, both parents may well have undiagnosed grade 3 elbow dysplasia!  A pup from such a breeding would be far more likely to need expensive orthopedic surgery than one from the first. 
The pet buyer REALLY needs to understand that although a pup from parents without CHIC #s may be less expensive initially, far too often they end up costing the pet owner a lot more than the initial price difference  in vet bills within the first few years.

(And just in case all this discussion about elbow dysplasia has made you curious, the current incidence of elbow dysplasia in breeds that are doing a fair amount of screening can be viewed by simply clicking HERE.)