Health and Human Services (Washington) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that $84 million in grants will be awarded to 16 universities and junior colleges to support the training and development of more than 50,000 new health IT professionals.
Along with the $60 million in Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) awards, which were given to four advanced research institutions, the grants are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
According to David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology, the organizations receiving awards “will develop necessary roadmaps to help health care providers and hospitals implement and effectively use electronic health records.”
The Workforce Award recipients are as follows.
Community College Consortia Program ($36 million), which provides assistance to five regional recipients to establish a multi-institutional consortium within each designated region:
- Bellevue College (Bellevue, Wash.) — $3,364,798
- Cuyahoga Community College District (Cleveland) — $7,531,403
- Los Rios Community College District (Sacramento, Calif.) — $5,435,587
- Pitt Community College (Winterville, N.C.) — $10,901,009
- Tidewater Community College (Norfolk, Va.) — $8,492,793
Curriculum Development Center ($10 million), which will develop educational materials for key health IT topics to be used by the members of the Community College Consortia program:
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (Ala.) — $1,820,000
- The Trustees of Columbia University (New York) — $1,820,000
- Duke University (Durham, N.C.) — $1,820,000
- Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) — $1,820,000
- Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, Ore.) — $2,720,000
University-Based Training Programs ($32 million), which will produce trained professionals for vital, highly specialized health IT roles:
- The Trustees of Columbia University (New York) — $3,786,677
- University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing — $2,622,186
- Duke University (Durham, N.C.) — $2,167,121
- George Washington University (Washington) — $4,612,313
- Indiana University (Bloomington, Ind.) — $1,406,469
- Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) — $3,752,512
- University of Minnesota (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) — $5,145,705
- Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, Ore.) — $3,085,812
- Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas) — $5,421,205
Competency Examination Program ($6 million), which will support the development and initial administration of a set of health IT competency examinations:
- Northern Virginia Community College (Annandale, Va.) — $6,000,000
