Workforce Development

Workforce Development Program: Program of Assistance for University Based Training

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has awarded $84 million in funding for Health IT Workforce Development. There are four funded programs: (1) Community College Consortia: a non-degree program to be completed in six months or less. (2) Curriculum Development Centers: to develop educational materials for the Community College Consortia program (3) Competency Examination Program: to develop competency exams for health IT professionals and (4) University-Based training It is anticipated that the widespread adoption of EHRs will create a demand beyond the current workforce capacity of professional expertise in Biomedical Informatics. The University-Based training grants will assist over 1,500 people to complete advanced training in HIT. There are six targeted workforce roles in University-Based training:

1. Clinician/Public Health Leader 2. Health Information Management and Exchange Specialist 3. Health Information Privacy and Security Specialist 4. Research and Development Scientist 5. Programmers and Software Engineer 6. Health IT Sub-specialist

In April 2010, nine Colleges and Universities were granted awards totaling 32 million dollars for University-Based Training: Columbia University ($3,786,677), University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing ($2,622,186), Duke University ($2,167,121), George Washington University ($4,612,313), Indiana University ($1,406,469), Johns Hopkins University ($3,752,512), University of Minnesota ($5,145,705), Oregon Health & Science University ($3,085,812), and Texas State University ($5,421,205).

Students who are funded through the ONC grants must complete the certificate program within one year, achieve a grade of B or higher in all courses, and commit 20 hours or more to the program each week. Courses in the programs cover a wide spectrum of information. For a required course in the OHSU program students need to post an entry on Clinfowiki. The grants vary between institutions in the per cent of tuition paid for. It is also possible for student to continue from the certificate program on to a Master’s degree.

healthit.hhs.gov/programs/UniversityTraining

healthit.hhs.gov

Submitted by:Randy Berger