Health information technology professionals are in demand.

As the nation moves toward a more technologically advanced health care system, providers are going to need highly skilled health IT experts to support them in the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records.

To help address this growing demand, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has funded the Health IT Workforce Development Program. The goal is to train a new workforce of health IT professionals who will be ready to help providers implement electronic health records to improve health care quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

The ONC workforce development programs are graduating high-caliber health information technology professionals interested in supporting the growing and evolving health IT industry. The majority of the graduates are mid-career health care or IT professionals who have received specialized health IT training in the 12 ONC workforce roles and are now ready for employment.

About the Workforce Development Program
ONC has awarded $116 million in funding for the following Health IT Workforce Development Program activities:

• Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals: Five regional groups of 82 community colleges in all 50 states have $68 million in grants to develop or improve non-degree health IT training programs that can be completed in six months or less. The funded community colleges will help train more than 10,500 new health IT professionals by 2012. The programs are designed for professionals with an IT or health care background and focus on training students for the following professional roles:
  • Practice workflow and information management redesign specialists
  • Clinician/practitioner consultants
  • Implementation support specialists
  • Implementation managers
  • Technical/software support
  • Trainers
     
• Program of Assistance for University-Based Training: Nine grants totaling $32 million have been awarded to colleges and universities to quickly establish or expand health IT training programs for health IT professional roles requiring training at the university level. The six professional roles include:
  • Clinician or public health leader
  • Health information management and exchange specialist
  • Health information privacy and security specialist
  • Research and development scientist
  • Programmers and software engineer
  • Health IT sub-specialist
  Over the course of the grant, these programs will help more than 1,500 people receive certificates of advanced study or master’s degrees in health IT. All of the certificate programs can be completed in one year or less, and all of the master’s degree programs can be completed in two years or less.
   
• Curriculum Development Centers:  $10 million has been awarded to five universities for the development of educational materials for the Community College Consortia program. The materials will also be made available to other schools across the country.

• Competency Examination Program: A two-year, $6 million grant has been awarded to fund the development of competency exams for health IT professionals.

For More Information About:

• Community College Consortia, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/communitycollege
• University-Based Health IT Training, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/programs/UniversityTraining
• Curriculum Development Centers, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/curriculumdevelopment
• Competency Examination Program, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/competencyexam

Download Get the Facts About Health IT Workforce Development Program [PDF – 276 KB]