About Mike Squires

Mike Squires is a marketing and sales executive with 12 years focused on e-Healthcare initiatives that helped physicians change the way they work for better patient care. Experienced in introducing new online products to physicians, healthcare professionals, and the pharmaceutical and medical device industries with innovative sales and marketing strategies at start-up and traditional healthcare publishers. Helped position Medscape as the market leader to the industry and accelerate e-product offerings of Elsevier’s International Medical News Group and F-D-C Reports. Directed marketing, sales, client relations, sales support, and implementation of medical education and promotion programs. Entrepreneurial and enthusiastic; excellent mentor and motivator.

Q&A: Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Mike Squires

Q&A: Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Justice
Per Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT Regulations & Guidance page, “DEA’s rule, “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances” revises DEA’s regulation to provide practitioners with the option of writing prescriptions for controlled substances electronically. The regulations will also permit pharmacies to receive, dispense, and archive these electronic prescriptions. DEA’s discussions with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were instrumental in the development of this rule. DEA also worked closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the General Services Administration (GSA).”

General Questions and Answers
[As of 03/31/2010]
DEA Office of Diversion Control

These Questions and Answers were excerpted from DEA’s Office of Diversion Control Web site on April 8, 2010.
The questions and answers below are intended to summarize and provide general information regarding the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Interim Final Rule with Request for Comment “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances” (75 FR 16236, March 31, 2010) [Docket No. DEA-218, RIN 1117-AA61]. The information provided is not intended to provide specific information about every aspect of the rule, nor is it a substitute for the regulations themselves.

General
Implementation of Rule
Audits and Certification of Applications

GENERAL
Q. What is DEA’s rule “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances?”

A. DEA’s rule, “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances” revises DEA’s regulations to provide practitioners with the option of writing prescriptions for controlled substances electronically. The regulations will also permit pharmacies to receive, dispense, and archive these electronic prescriptions. The rule was published in the Federal Register Wednesday, March 31, 2010 and becomes effective on June 1, 2010.

Q. Is the use of electronic prescriptions for controlled substances mandatory?

A. No, the new regulations do not mandate that practitioners prescribe controlled substances using only electronic prescriptions. Nor do they require pharmacies to accept electronic prescriptions for controlled substances for dispensing. Whether a practitioner or pharmacy uses electronic prescriptions for controlled substances is voluntary from DEA’s perspective. Prescribing practitioners are still able to write, and manually sign, prescriptions for schedule II, III, IV, and V controlled substances and pharmacies are still able to dispense controlled substances based on those written prescriptions. Oral prescriptions remain valid for schedule III, IV, and V controlled substances.

Q. Did DEA consider public comment in the development of this rule?

A. DEA considered almost two hundred separate comments received from the public to the “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances” Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (73 FR 36722, June 27, 2008) in the development of this rule.

Q. Did DEA work with other Federal agencies in the development of this rule?

A. DEA worked closely with a number of components within the Department of Health and Human Services. DEA’s discussions with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were instrumental in the development of this rule. DEA also worked closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the General Services Administration.

IMPLEMENTATION OF RULE
Q. When can a practitioner start issuing electronic prescriptions for controlled substances?

A. A practitioner will be able to issue electronic controlled substance prescriptions only when the electronic prescription or electronic health record (EHR) application the practitioner is using complies with the requirements in the interim final rule.

Q. When can a pharmacy start processing electronic prescriptions for controlled substances?

A. A pharmacy will be able to process electronic controlled substance prescriptions only when the pharmacy application the pharmacy is using complies with the requirements in the interim final rule.

Q. How will a practitioner or pharmacy be able to determine that an application complies with DEA’s rule?

A. The application provider must either hire a qualified third party to audit the application or have the application reviewed and certified by an approved certification body. The auditor or certification body will issue a report that states whether the application complies with DEA’s requirements and whether there are any limitations on its use for controlled substance prescriptions. (A limited set of prescriptions require information that may need revision of the basic prescription standard before they can be reliably accommodated.) The application provider must provide a copy of the report to practitioners or pharmacies to allow them to determine whether the application is compliant.

Q. As a practitioner, until I have received an audit/certification report from my application provider indicating that the application meets DEA’s requirements, how can I use my electronic prescription application or EHR application to write controlled substances prescriptions?

A. Nothing in this rule prevents a practitioner or a practitioner’s agent from using an existing electronic prescription or EHR application that does not comply with the interim final rule to prepare and print a controlled substance prescription, so that EHR and other electronic prescribing functionality may be used. Until the application is compliant with the final rule, however, the practitioner will have to print the prescription for manual signature. Such prescriptions are paper prescriptions and subject to the existing requirements for paper prescriptions.

Q. As a pharmacy, until I have received an audit/certification report from my application provider indicating that the application meets DEA’s requirements, how can I use my pharmacy application to process controlled substances prescriptions?

A. A pharmacy cannot process electronic prescriptions for controlled substances until its pharmacy application provider obtains a third party audit or certification review that determines that the application complies with DEA’s requirements and the application provider provides the audit/certification report to the pharmacy. The pharmacy may continue to use its pharmacy application to store and process information from paper or oral controlled substances prescriptions it receives, but the paper records must be retained.

Q. Is identity proofing of individual prescribing practitioners still required and who will conduct it?

A. Identity proofing is still required. It is critical to the security of electronic prescribing of controlled substances that authentication credentials used to sign controlled substances prescriptions are issued only to individuals whose identity has been confirmed. Individual practitioners will be required to apply to certain Federally approved credential service providers (CSPs) or certification authorities (CAs) to obtain their two-factor authentication credential or digital certificates. The CSP or CA will be required to conduct identity proofing that meets National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-63-1 Assurance Level 3. Both in person and remote identity proofing will be acceptable. Institutional practitioners will have the option to conduct in-person identity proofing in-house as part of their routine credentialing process.

Q. What two-factor credentials will be acceptable?

A. Under the interim final rule, DEA is allowing the use of two of the following – something you know (a knowledge factor), something you have (a hard token stored separately from the computer being accessed), and something you are (biometric information). The hard token, if used, must be a cryptographic device or a one-time-password device that meets Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 Security Level 1.

Q. How will the two-factor credential be used?

A. The practitioner will use the two-factor credential to sign the prescription; that is, using the two-factor credential will constitute the legal signature of the DEA-registered prescribing practitioner. When the credential is used, the application must digitally sign and archive at least the DEA-required information contained in the prescription. Because the record will be digitally signed and archived at that point, the proposed requirement for a lock-out period is not needed and is not part of the interim final rule.

Q. May a practitioner use his own digital certificate to sign an electronic controlled substance prescription?

A. Yes, the interim final rule allows any practitioner to use his own digital certificate to sign electronic prescriptions for controlled substances. If the practitioner and his application provider wish to do so, the two-factor authentication credential can be a digital certificate specific to the practitioner that the practitioner obtains from a Certification Authority that is cross-certified with the Federal Bridge Certification Authority at the basic assurance level.

Q. Must a practitioner separately attest to each prescription?

A. No, the application must include, on the prescription review screen, a statement that the use of the two-factor credential is the legal equivalent of a signature, but no keystroke is required to acknowledge the statement.

Q. Is it permissible to have a staff person in the practitioner’s office complete all of the required information for a controlled substance prescription and then have the practitioner sign and authorize the transmission of the prescription?

A. Yes, however, if an agent of the practitioner enters information at the practitioner’s direction prior to the practitioner reviewing and approving the information, the practitioner is responsible in the event the prescription does not conform in all essential respects to the law and regulations.

Q. Can a practitioner print a copy of any electronic prescriptions for controlled substances?

A. Yes, the electronic prescription application may print copies of the transmitted prescription(s) if they are clearly labeled: “Copy only – not valid for dispensing.” Data on the prescription may be electronically transferred to medical records, and a list of prescriptions transmitted may be printed for patients if the list indicates that it is for informational purposes only and not for dispensing. The copies must be printed after transmission. If an electronic prescription is printed prior to attempted transmission, the electronic prescription application must not allow it to be transmitted.

Q. Will a practitioner be allowed to simultaneously issue multiple prescriptions for multiple patients with a single signature?

A. A practitioner is not permitted to issue prescriptions for multiple patients with a single signature. However, a practitioner is allowed to sign multiple prescriptions for a single patient at one time. Each controlled substance prescription will have to be indicated as ready for signing, but a single execution of the two-factor authentication protocol can then sign all prescriptions for a given patient that the practitioner has indicated as being ready to be signed.

Q. Once an electronic controlled substance prescription is signed, must it be transmitted to the pharmacy immediately?

A. No, signing and transmitting an electronic controlled substance prescription are two distinct actions. Electronic prescriptions for controlled substances should be transmitted as soon as possible after signing, however, it is understood that practitioners may prefer to sign prescriptions before office staff add pharmacy or insurance information, therefore, DEA is not requiring that transmission of the prescription occur simultaneously with signing the prescription.

Q. If transmission of an electronic prescription fails, may the intermediary convert the electronic prescription to another form (e.g. facsimile) for transmission?

A. No, an electronic prescription must be transmitted from the practitioner to the pharmacy in its electronic form. If an intermediary cannot complete a transmission of a controlled substance prescription, the intermediary must notify the practitioner. Under such circumstances, if the prescription is for a schedule III, IV, or V controlled substance, the practitioner can print the prescription, manually sign it, and fax the prescription directly to the pharmacy. This prescription must indicate that it was originally transmitted to, and provide the name of, a specific pharmacy, the date and time of transmission, and the fact that the electronic transmission failed.

Q. What are the restrictions regarding alteration of a prescription during transmission?

A. The (DEA-required) contents of a prescription shall not be altered during transmission between the practitioner and pharmacy. However, this requirement only applies to the content (not the electronic format used to transmit the prescription). This requirement applies to actions by intermediaries. It does not apply to changes that occur after receipt at the pharmacy. Changes made by the pharmacy are governed by the same laws and regulations that apply to paper prescriptions.

Q. Are electronic prescription records required to be backed-up, and if so, how often.

A. Yes, pharmacy application service providers must back up files daily. Also, although it is not required, DEA recommends as a best practice that pharmacies store their back-up copies at another location to prevent the loss of the records in the event of natural disasters, fires, or system failures.

Q. What should a pharmacist do if he receives a paper or oral prescription that was originally transmitted electronically to the pharmacy?

A. The pharmacist must check the pharmacy records to ensure that the electronic version was not received and the prescription dispensed. If both prescriptions were received, the pharmacist must mark one as void.

Q. What should a pharmacist do if he receives a paper or oral prescription that indicates that it was originally transmitted electronically to another pharmacy?

A. The pharmacist must check with the other pharmacy to determine whether the prescription was received and dispensed. If the pharmacy that received the original electronic prescription had not dispensed the prescription, that pharmacy must mark the electronic version as void or canceled. If the pharmacy that received the original electronic prescription dispensed the prescription, the pharmacy with the paper version must not dispense the paper prescription and must mark the prescription as void.

Q. What are the DEA requirements regarding the storage of electronic prescription records?

A. Once a prescription is created electronically, all records of the prescription must be retained electronically. As is the case with paper prescription records, electronic controlled substance prescription records must be kept for a minimum period of two years.

AUDITS AND CERTIFICATION OF APPLICATIONS
Q. Who can conduct an audit or certify an application?

A. Application providers must obtain a third-party audit or certification to certify that each electronic prescription and pharmacy application to be used to sign, transmit, or process controlled substances prescriptions is in compliance with DEA regulations pertaining to electronic prescriptions for controlled substances. The application may undergo a WebTrust, SysTrust, or SAS 70 audit conducted by a person qualified to conduct such an audit. The application may undergo an audit conducted by a Certified Information System Auditor who performs compliance audits as a regular ongoing business activity. The application may have a certification organization whose certification has been approved by DEA verify and certify that the application meets DEA’s requirements.

Q. When must a third-party audit or certification be conducted?

A. The third-party audit or certification must be conducted before the electronic prescription application is used to sign or transmit electronic prescriptions for controlled substances, or before the pharmacy application is used to process electronic prescriptions for controlled substances, respectively. Thereafter, a third-party audit or certification must be conducted whenever a functionality related to controlled substance prescription requirements is altered or every two years, whichever occurs first.

Q. To whom does the third-party audit/certification requirement apply?

A. The requirement for a third-party audit applies to the application provider, not to the individual practitioner, institutional practitioner, or pharmacy that uses the application. Unless an individual practitioner, institutional practitioner, or pharmacy has developed its own application, the practitioner or pharmacy is not subject to the requirement.

See related post on March 25, 2010 on e-Healthcare Marketing.

NJIT Receives More than $23 Mil for NJ Regional Extension Center: NJ-HITEC

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Mike Squires

NJIT Receives More than $23 Million in Recovery Funds
for Regional Extension Center To Facilitate Use of EHRS
NJ Health Information Technology Extension Center (NJ-HITEC)
NJ-HITEC Web Site: www.njhitec.org
NEWARK, Apr 7 2010 Press Release from NJIT produced in full.

Donald H. Sebastian, PhD

The White House announced yesterday that New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) will receive more than $23 million of the $2 billion allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to achieve widespread meaningful use of health IT and facilitate use of an electronic health record (EHR) by every person by the year 2014. The newborn New Jersey Health Information Technology Extension Center (NJ-HITEC) initiative proposed by NJIT Senior Vice President for Research and Development Donald H. Sebastian, PhD, principal investigator, will assist New Jersey’s health care providers in their significant use of health information technology through outreach, consultation and user support for the state’s primary care providers serving at-risk population centers.

“This federal program shows that health care reform is about more than just insurance. We can drive down costs and improve care through the re-engineering of medical practice. Information technology is a critical enabler,” said Sebastian. “Roughly 80 percent of the state’s physicians serve at-risk population areas–the large urban regions of Newark, Trenton, Camden and Atlantic City– and these providers will be the primary receivers of grant-assisted services supporting them to achieve meaningful use of electronic healthcare record systems.”

William O’Byrne, State Coordinator, Office of Health Information Technology Development, State of New Jersey pointed out that, “NJ-HITEC staff will offer client practices one-stop shopping, coordinating the delivery of services and technology from public and private sources. This brokered service-organizational model, based upon NJIT’s decades of experience in managing statewide extension efforts with high impact, will leverage existing public and private-sector partners and eliminate the need for large administrative overhead.” New Jersey’s 19 community colleges will act as exclusive partners for the delivery of outreach and awareness training throughout the state. The NJIT Division of Continuing and Professional Education will complement these efforts.

Director of the New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, John R. Guhl added, “I am pleased to see that New Jersey’s university of science and technology has stepped forward to lead this effort. NJIT has a solid track record in deploying an array of outreach and extension programs and also has the technical expertise to bring fresh ideas and emerging technologies to the field with objectivity and credibility.”

Thomas M. Bartiromo, vice president and chief technology officer at Saint Barnabas Health Care System, indicated that, “Our whole delivery approach will take advantage of the strong partnerships formed with New Jersey Hospital Association, Health Information Management and Systems Society, Medical Society of New Jersey, NJ Community College Consortium for Workforce & Economic Development, New Jersey Department of Health and the New Jersey Human Services– without which this new Center would not be realized. The HIT Extension Center award to NJIT is fantastic news for New Jersey, its patients, hospitals and physician community. This will provide much-needed assistance for physician practices to further their adoption of Health Information Technology, achieve meaningful use of an EHR and participate in Health Information Exchange/s. This also provides an opportunity for the planned NJ Health Care Innovation Center to work closely with the HITEC to prioritize areas for system solutions and innovations to and from the field. This platform will help create the conditions for continuous HIT Innovation to occur in New Jersey.”

Tom Gregorio, senior vice president administration and chief information officer, Meadowlands Hospital and executive director of Health-e-cITi NJ, a regional healthcare information exchange (HIE), explained “this award to NJIT represents the final step in aligning the HIE efforts in the state with the federal requirements providing physicians with the capabilities to become meaningful users of Healthcare Information Technology. Health-e-cITi NJ is proud to have contributed to the efforts and is proud to be a part of the collaboration with NJIT. I would also like to thank Don Sebastian for his relentless leadership and vision in making sure that NJIT and the state is in front of the line when it comes to healthcare innovation technology. His vision for the University and the State are sure to place the program among the models for the country.”

“The New Jersey Chapter of HIMSS is excited at the potential for adoption of transformational technology by our physicians that NJ-HITEC, a Regional Extension Center, will help spearhead,” said Richard S. Temple, president, New Jersey Chapter of HIMSS.

NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch, PhD, extolled the collaboration. “Every member of the partnership that secured this grant is to be congratulated for their dedication and tireless efforts. Their success is a substantial contribution to more effective and economical delivery of health care and, most importantly, to better health for the people of New Jersey,” he said.

NJIT, New Jersey’s science and technology university, at the edge in knowledge, enrolls more than 8,400 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 92 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. In 2009, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation’s top 25 campuses for technology and among the top 150 for best value. U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities.
# # #

NJ-HITEC Web Site: www.njhitec.org

Blumenthal Letter #13: Preparing Professionals for a Nationwide Health Care Transformation

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Mike Squires

Blumenthal Letter #13: Preparing Professionals for a Nationwide Health Care Transformation

: Dr. David Blumenthal

A Message from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Emailed April 7, 2010
(Additional post from ONC Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Charles Friedman excerpted from ONC Blog below.)

I know that health care providers are concerned about implementing new health information technology and finding professionals who can operate and maintain such systems. I know many clinicians are unsure how they will develop or strengthen their skill set to incorporate using health IT efficiently and effectively without jeopardizing their communication with patients during a clinical visit. It seems like a daunting transformation to clinicians themselves and, indeed, for our health care system overall. The HITECH Act recognized that the success of this health IT journey depends on people: people who are passionate about improving patient care, and who are supported in making those improvements.

To this end, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded $84 million to 16 institutions of higher education to fund the Health IT Workforce Development Program, which focuses on several key resources required to rapidly expand the availability of health IT professionals who will support broad adoption and use of health IT in the provider community. Those resources include:

A community college training program to create a workforce that can facilitate the implementation and support of an electronic health care system
Quality educational materials that institutions of higher education can use to construct core instructional programs
A competency examination program to evaluate trainee knowledge and skills acquired through non-degree training programs
Additional university programs to support certificate and advanced degree training

The Workforce Development Program is one of the best examples of the depth of thought behind the HITECH Act. We could spend many billions of dollars developing, incentivizing, and implementing health IT solutions, but without an effectively trained workforce, our efforts would fall short of their ultimate goal of improving patient care. These efforts, designed in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, and the Department of Labor, are estimated to reduce the shortfall of qualified health IT professionals by 85 percent.

I congratulate the Workforce Development Program awardees and look forward to working with them on this important initiative. Those who take advantage of professional training in health IT provided through award recipients will find opportunities for interesting, challenging, and important work. Not only do these opportunities represent new jobs, they represent promising careers in a growing sector of our economy.

Sincerely,
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
# # #

(See post on e-Healthcare Marketing “ONC Funds Twelve Health IT Priority Workforce Roles’ Training: What are They?“)

Health IT Buzz Blog Post from Dr. Charles Friedman, Chief Scientific Officer, ONC
Focus on People: Building the Health IT Workforce
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 | Posted by: Dr. Charles Friedman | Category: Grants, HITECH Programs, ONC
Excerpted from ONC Web site on April 7, 2010.
We frequently talk about health IT with an emphasis on the technology. But at the heart of the transformation of our health system, it’s really all about people. Above all, it’s about improving care for all Americans.

Health care providers are passionate about the work they do. As the nation moves toward meaningful use of health information technology, it is also about preparing a well-trained, equally passionate health IT workforce. Although there are many excellent training programs currently in place, the nation needs more health IT workers than the current training capacity can produce, and it needs individuals specifically trained for a very wide range of important roles.

Working with the educational community, we have identified 12 specific health IT workforce roles. All 12 roles are required to support adoption of health IT and sustain its meaningful use. Six of the 12 roles can be addressed through intensive short-term training based in community colleges, and the other six require longer programs university-based training. Every person trained to undertake each of these roles must understand, in ways appropriate to that role, BOTH health care AND information technology.

Now, we have laid the foundation for building the health IT workforce by allocating $84 million in grants to domestic institutions of higher education. These grants are distributed over four complementary programs that together will rapidly begin meeting the nation’s needs. Two of the programs will directly support greatly expanded training in community colleges and universities. Another program will create and disseminate high quality educational materials that will be used in the community college program, but will also be available to the entire nation. The fourth will create health IT competency examinations to help verify that trainees have the knowledge and skills required to be effective in their jobs.

Because the workforce need is acute, these new programs will ramp up very quickly. Training in community colleges and universities will begin this fall. All programs of study will be intense and highly rigorous to produce trained workers as quickly as possible. The programs will be flexibly designed to meet the needs of adult learners. We expect that many of the trainees will come to the program with prior training in either health care or IT. The program will move them into the workforce as rapidly as possible by building on what they already know and filling in any gaps in their knowledge.

Finally, as the nation recovers from the recession, health IT will be a source of increasing numbers of well-paying, fulfilling jobs. At full capacity, the community colleges directly supported by these grants will produce over 10,000 workers per year.

These programs will position us for success in transforming health care through meaningful use of information technology.
# # #

See post on e-Healthcare Marketing “ONC Funds Twelve Health IT Priority Workforce Roles’ Training: What are They?”

HHS/ONC Name 28 Regional Extension Centers; 60 Total RECs to Convert 100,000 Primary Care Clinicians to EHR Users

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Mike Squires

$267 Million Added to Support 100,000 Primary Care Clinicians as Meaningful Users of Electronic Health Records Within Two Years
Tables with First and Second Round Awardees and Amounts
HHS Press Release announding release of $267 Million in Recovery Funds shown below in section after tables
On April 6, 2010, the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT announced the 28 organizations that won funding as Regional Extension Centers, each of which will be responsible for getting at least 1,000 primary care providers up-to-speed and using Electronic Health Records for meaningful use. Added to the first round of 32 awardees from February 2010, a total of 60 Extension Centers will be established. The centers, which will “provide hands-on, community-based support to accelerate the adoption of Health Information Technology” are named in two tables below, along with the amount of the awards. The national goal is to convert at least 100,000 primary care clinicians to meaningful use of Electronic Health Records within two years.

Excerpted from ONC’s Health Information Technology Extension page on April 6, 2010: “The HITECH Act authorizes a Health Information Technology Extension Program. The extension program consists of Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers (RECs) and a national Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC). The RECs will offer technical assistance, guidance, and information to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The HITRC will be responsible for gathering relevant information on effective practices and help the RECs collaborate with one another and with relevant stakeholders to identify and share best practices in EHR adoption, effective use, and provider support.

“The RECs are designed to ensure that primary care clinicians who need help are provided with an array of on-the-ground support to meaningfully use electronic health records (EHRs). Providing training and support services, the RECs will assist doctors and other providers in the adoption and meaningful use of EHR systems. The REC program has coverage in virtually every geographic region of the United States, which ensures sufficient community-based support. The goal of the program is to provide outreach and support services to at least 100,000 priority primary care providers within two years.

“The REC cooperative agreements were awarded in two rounds with 32 awards announced in February 2010 and 28 in April 2010. The final number of RECs in the program is 60.”

Grantees in second series of awards (announced April 6, 2010)

REC Awardees	Federal Share
Alaska eHealth Network, Anchorage, AK	$3,632,357
University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL	$7,519,969
Arizona Health-e Connection, Phoenix, AZ	$10,791,644
Local Initiative Health Authority for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA	$15,625,910
eHealthConnecticut, Inc., Rocky Hill, CT	$5,749,309
National Indian Health Board, Washington, DC	$15,625,910
Quality Insights of Delaware, Inc., Wilmington, DE	$5,859,716
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL	$7,669,328
Community Health Centers Alliance, Inc, St. Petersburg, FL	$10,982,866
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL	$5,884,132
Hawaii Health Information Exchange, Honolulu, HI	$5,859,716
University of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington, KY	$6,005,467
Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, Baton Rouge, LA	$6,207,802
HealthInfoNet, Manchester, ME	$4,777,483
Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients, Baltimore, MD	$5,535,423
eQHealth Solutions, Inc , Baton Rouge, LA	$4,289,613
The Curators of the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO	$6,836,335
Mountain-Pacific Quality Health Foundation, Helena, MT	$5,020,754
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ	$23,048,351
Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, Inc. (Eastern), King of Prussia, PA	$28,810,271
Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, Inc. (Western), King of Prussia, PA	$15,625,910
Ponce School of Medicine, PR	$19,280,795
South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia, SC	$5,581,407
Dakota State University, Madison, SD	$5,687,168
The TAMUS Health Science Center Research Foundation. College Station, TX	$5,279,970
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX	$15,274,327
Dallas- Fort Worth Hospital Council Education and Research Foundation, Irving, TX	$8,488,513
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Lubbock, TX	$6,666,296
Total	$267, 616, 742

Grantees in first series of awards (announced Feb 12, 2010)

RECs Awardee	Federal Share
Arkansas Foundation For Medical Care	$7,400,000
Northern California Regional Extension Center	$17,286,081
Southern California Regional Extension Center	$13,961,339
Colorado RHIO	$12,475,000
District of Columbia Primary Care Association	$5,488,437
Health Choice Network, Inc., Florida	$8,500,000
Morehouse School of Medicine, Inc., Georgia	$19,521,542
Northern Illinois University	$7,546,000
Northwestern University	$7,649,533
Iowa IFMC	$5,508,019
Purdue University	$12,000,000
Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Inc.	$7,000,000
Massachusetts Technology Park Cooperation	$13,433,107
Altarum Institute, Michigan	$19,619,990
Key Health Alliance (Stratis Health), Minnesota – North Dakota	$19,000,000
CIMRO of Nebraska	$6,647,371
LCF Research, New Mexico	$6,175,000
New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC)	$26,534,999
Fund for Public Health New York	$21,754,010
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	$13,569,169
Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge (Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana)	$9,738,000
Ohio Health Information Partnership	$28,500,000
Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, Inc.	$5,331,685
OCHIN Inc. (Primary), Oregon	$13,201,499
Rhode Island Quality Institute	$6,000,000
Qsource (Tennessee)	$7,256,155
HealthInsight, Utah-Nevada	$6,917,783
Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc.	$6,762,080
VHQC and the Center for Innovative Technology, for The Virginia Consortium	$12,425,000
Qualis Health, Washington – Idaho	$12,846,482
West Virginia Health Improvement Institute Inc.	$6,000,000
MetaStar, Inc, Wisconsin	$9,125,000

Total	$375,173,281

Press Release from HHS released April 6, 2010
HHS Announces $267 Million in Recovery Act Funds for New Health IT Regional Extension Centers

Grants to Provide Hands-On, Community-Based Support to Providers to Accelerate the Adoption of Health Information Technology

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that more than $267 million has been awarded to 28 additional non-profit organizations to establish Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers (RECs). This investment, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will help grow the emerging health information technology (health IT) industry which is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs ranging from nurses and pharmacy techs to IT technicians and trainers.

RECs enable health care practitioners to reach out to a local resource for technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices. RECs are designed to address unique community requirements and to support and accelerate provider efforts to become meaningful users of electronic health records.

“Health care in our country is community-based. Today’s awards represent our ongoing commitment to make sure that health providers have the necessary support within their communities to maximize the use of health IT to improve the care they provide to their patients,” said Secretary Sebelius.

This round of awards, bringing the total number of REC’s to 60, will provide nationwide outreach and technical support services to at least 100,000 primary care providers and hospitals within two years. The primary care provider is usually the first medical practitioner contacted by a patient. Studies have also found that primary care providers are at the forefront of practicing preventative medicine, a key to improving population health and reducing overall health costs. More than $375 million had been awarded earlier to RECs under this program.

Additionally, all REC awardees, those announced today and the 32 announced on Feb. 12, 2010, now have an opportunity to apply for a two-year expansion supplemental award. The supplemental awards would ensure that health IT support services are available to over 2,000 of the nation’s critical access hospitals and rural hospitals, both defined as having 50 beds or less. Approximately $25 million is available through this supplemental expansion program.

“Regional extension centers will provide the needed hands-on, field support for all health care providers to advance the rapid adoption and use of health IT. RECs are a vital part of our overall efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of health care through the effective use of health IT,” said Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology.

Today’s awards are part of the $2 billion effort by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to achieve widespread meaningful use of health IT and provide use of an electronic health record by every person by the year 2014.
# # #

Blumenthal Letter #12: Paving the Path to Progress with a Roadmap for Health IT

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Mike Squires

Paving the Path to Progress with a Roadmap for Health IT
A Message from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (and excerpted in full below, followed by his ONC blog post)

Dr. David Blumenthal

Emailed on April 5, 2010

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is responsible for putting forward a vision for nationwide, interoperable health IT. Our work requires that we also support the creation of a learning health system that is patient-centered and uses information to continuously improve health and health care of individuals and the population. We have begun to get input for a detailed roadmap outlining goals, principles, objectives, strategies, and tactics toward this effort. This roadmap will pave the way to our vision and help keep us accountable.

The original Federal Health IT Strategic Plan was published in June 2008. As part of the 2009 HITECH Act, included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the ONC is required to update the 2008 Strategic Plan. The updated Federal Health IT Strategic Plan will outline objectives, milestones, and metrics related to health information exchange and associated privacy and security protections, electronic health record utilization, and will address the needs of underserved populations to reduce health disparities. It will primarily address the time period of 2011 through 2015 but also will lay the groundwork for continued innovation and progress beyond 2015.

The strategic planning process will require your insights and experience. We want the process to be highly participatory, with broad involvement across the health care sector, and opportunities for public input and discussion. To this end, the HIT Policy Committee’s Strategic Plan Workgroup is tasked with developing for the Policy Committee the Health IT Strategic Framework to inform the strategic planning process and providing a vehicle for public and private input.

The Framework will include recommendations for the Committee for updates to the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan. The current draft Framework organizes key strategies into four themes: meaningful use of health IT; policy and technical infrastructure; privacy and security; and learning health systems. For each theme there is a goal, principles, objectives, and strategies. Ultimately, the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan will go two steps further by outlining specific tactics and measures per theme.

Last week, the ONC posted a draft of the HIT Policy Committee Strategic Plan Workgroup’s Health IT Strategic Framework for public review. Comments can be provided via the FACA Blog and via a public listening session, scheduled for April 6, 2010. Registration is required and complete details are available at http://healthit.hhs.gov/StrategicPlanWG.

I encourage you to review the draft Framework and offer your feedback. The HIT Policy Committee and the ONC staff will carefully review comments and consider how to incorporate public input into the Strategic Framework and ultimately into the Plan update. Please join us in developing a dynamic strategic plan to pave our road to progress.

Sincerely,
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
# # #

Health IT Buzz Blog Post from Dr. Blumenthal excerpted below:
Ensuring a Strategic Approach to the Implementation of Health IT
Monday, April 5th, 2010 | Posted by: Dr. David Blumenthal | Category: HITECH Programs, ONC

In June of 2008, ONC published the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan — a roadmap for the implementation of nationwide health IT. We need to update the plan to take into account progress made toward the HITECH vision and new opportunities and challenges that may have arisen. The experiences of providers and health IT professionals working “on the ground” play an enormous role in crafting these adjustments to the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and setting the course of our future efforts.

Today, ONC posted a draft of the HIT Policy Committee Strategic Plan Workgroup’s Health IT Strategic Framework, a foundation for updates to the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan. The draft Framework focuses on the goal, guiding principles, objectives, and strategies of four key areas:

Meaningful use of health IT
Policy and technical infrastructure
Privacy and security
Learning health system

The long and short of it is that ONC needs you — your experiences and insights can tell us much about what is working well in the implementation of the HITECH Act and where we have opportunities for improvement.

I hope that you will take an opportunity to review the draft Health IT Strategic Framework and share your thoughts on the FACA blog or via the public listening session, scheduled for April 6, 2010. Registration is required for the listening session, and complete details are available at http://healthit.hhs.gov/StrategicPlanWG. The HIT Policy Committee will consider public input before making formal recommendations to ONC.

Together we can ensure that the HITECH Act’s goals, objectives, and strategies are on-target and leading us in the right direction — toward the meaningful use of EHRs and improved health and care for Americans health care.

–David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. – National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
# # #

Agenda and pre-registration links for Listening Session on April 6, 2010 at 12:00pm noon ET, can be found on e-Healthcare Marketing post as well.

ONC Funds Twelve Health IT Priority Workforce Roles’ Training: What are They?

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Mike Squires

Three Categories of Twelve Health IT Priority Workforce Roles Defined: Training Funded by ONC
Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT has defined 12 key roles necessary to support the rollout of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) as part of the HITECH initiative. ONC funding announced on April 12, 2010, supports education and training divided between five consortia of community colleges for six of the roles, and nine universities for the other six roles. This e-Healthcare Marketing post has selected excerpts from the original ONC Funding Announcements with descriptions of the roles.

“A total of 12 workforce roles are described below, spanning the full range of roles envisioned in ONC’s workforce program. These roles are described in three general categories.

“Competencies associated with six of the roles listed below can, for qualified individuals, be attained through six month programs based in community colleges. These roles (noted with an asterisk, below) are specifically targeted by the Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals FOA (Funding Opportunity (FOA) . The other six roles listed below, that are not marked with an asterisk are addressed by” the FOA entitled Information Technology Professionals in Health Care: Program of Assistance for University-Based Training

Outline of Twelve Roles in Three Categories

Category 1: Mobile Adoption Support Roles
“These members of the workforce will support implementation at specific locations, for a period of time, and when their work is done, will move on to new locations. They might be employed by regional extension centers, vendors, or state/city public health agencies.

*Implementation support specialist
*Practice workflow and information management redesign specialist
*Clinician consultant
*Implementation manager”

Category 2: Permanent Staff of Health Care Delivery and Public Health Sites
“These roles are needed for ongoing support of health IT at office practices, hospitals, health centers, Long Term Care (LTC) facilities, health information exchange organizations and state and local public health agencies.

Clinician/public health leader
*Technical/software support staff
*Trainer
Health information management and exchange specialist
Health information privacy and security specialist”

Category 3: Health Care and Public Health Informaticians
“These individuals will be based in universities, research centers, government agencies, and research and development divisions of software companies.

Research and development scientist
Programmers and software engineer
Health IT sub-specialist”

* Asterisked roles above are focus of Community college training.

Detail of the Twelve Health IT Professional Roles

Category 1: Mobile Adoption Support Positions
“These members of the workforce will support implementation at specific locations for a period of time, and when their work is done, will move on to new locations. Workers in these roles might be employed by regional extension centers, providers, vendors, or state/city public health agencies, and would work together in teams. Preparation for this set of roles will typically require six months of intense training for individuals with appropriate backgrounds.”

1. Practice workflow and information management redesign specialists: (Community college-trained)
“Workers in this role assist in reorganizing the work of a provider to take full advantage of the features of health IT in pursuit of meaningful use of health IT to improve health and care. Individuals in this role may have backgrounds in health care (for example, as a practice administrator) or in information technology, but are not licensed clinical professionals. Workers in this role will:

Conduct user requirements analysis to facilitate workflow design
Integrate information technology functions into workflow
Document health information exchange needs
Design processes and information flows that accommodate quality improvement and reporting
Work with provider personnel to implement revised workflows
Evaluate process workflows to validate or improve practice’s systems”

2. Clinician/practitioner consultants: (Community college-trained)
“This role is similar to the “redesign specialist” role listed above but brings to bear the background and experience of a licensed clinical and professional or public health professional. In addition to the activities noted above, workers in this role will:

Suggest solutions for health IT implementation problems in clinical and public health settings
Address workflow and data collection issues from a clinical perspective, including quality measurement and improvement
Assist in selection of vendors and software
Advocate for users’ needs, acting as a liaison between users, IT staff, and vendors”

3. Implementation support specialists: (Community college-trained)
“Workers in this role provide on-site user support for the period of time before and during implementation of health IT systems in clinical and public health settings. The previous background of workers in this role includes information technology or information management. Workers in this role will:

Execute implementation project plans, by installing hardware (as needed) and configuring software to meet practice needs
Incorporate usability principles into design and implementation
Test the software against performance specifications
Interact with the vendors as needed to rectify problems that occur during the deployment process”

4. Implementation managers: (Community college-trained)
“Workers in this role provide on-site management of mobile adoption support teams for the period of time before and during implementation of health IT systems in clinical and public health settings. Workers in this role will, prior to training, have experience in health and/or IT environments as well as administrative and managerial experience. Workers in this role will:

Apply project management and change management principles to create implementation project plans to achieve the project goals
Interact with office/hospital personnel to ensure open communication with the support team
Lead implementation teams consisting of workers in the roles described above
Manage vendor relations, providing feedback to health IT vendors for product improvement”

Category 2: Permanent Staff of Health Care Delivery and Public Health Sites
“These roles are needed for ongoing support of health IT that has been deployed in office practices, hospitals, health centers, long-term care facilities, health information exchange organizations and state and local public health agencies. Preparation for this set of roles will typically require six months of intense training for individuals with appropriate backgrounds.”

5. Clinician/Public Health Leader: (University-trained)
“By combining formal clinical or public health training with training in health IT, individuals in this role will be able to lead the successful deployment and use of health IT to achieve transformational improvement in the quality, safety, outcomes, and thus in the value, of health services in the United States. In the health care provider settings, this role may be currently expressed through job titles such as Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO). In public health agencies, this role may be currently expressed through job titles such as Chief Information or Chief Informatics Officer. Training appropriate to this role will require at least one year of study leading to a university-issued certificate or master’s degree in health informatics or health IT, as a complement to the individual’s prior clinical or public health academic training. For this role, the entering trainees may be physicians (see footnote below for definition of physician used) or other clinical professionals (e.g. advanced-practice nurses, physician assistants) or hold a master’s or doctoral degree(s) in public health or related health field. Individuals could also enter this training while enrolled in programs leading directly to degrees qualifying them to practice as physicians or other clinical professionals, or to master’s or doctoral degrees in public health or related fields (such as epidemiology). Thus, individuals could be supported for training if they already hold or if they are currently enrolled in courses of study leading to physician, other clinical professional, or public-health professional degrees.”

6. Technical/software support staff: (Community college-trained)
“Workers in this role maintain systems in clinical and public health settings, including patching and upgrading of software. The previous background of workers in this role includes information technology or information management. Workers in this role will:

Interact with end users to diagnose IT problems and implement solutions
Document IT problems and evaluate the effectiveness of problem resolution
Support systems security and standards”

7. Trainers: (Community college-trained)
“Workers in this role design and deliver training programs, using adult learning principles, to employees in clinical and public health settings. The previous background of workers in this role includes experience as a health professional or health information management specialist. Experience as a trainer in from the classroom is also desired. Workers in this role will:

Be able to use a range of health IT applications, preferably at an expert level
Communicate both health and IT concepts as appropriate
Assess training needs and competencies of learners
Design lesson plans, structuring active learning experiences for users
Track training records of the users and develop learning plans for further instruction”

8. Health Information Management and Exchange Specialist: (University-trained)
“Individuals in these roles support the collection, management, retrieval, exchange, and/or analysis of information in electronic form, in health care and public health organizations. We anticipate that graduates of this training would typically not enter directly into leadership or management roles. We would expect that training appropriate to this role would require specialization within baccalaureate-level studies or a certificate of advanced studies or post-baccalaureate-level training in Health Information Management, health informatics, or related fields, leading to a university-issued certificate or master’s degree.”

9. Health Information Privacy and Security Specialist: (University-trained)
“Maintaining trust by ensuring the privacy and security of health information is an essential component of any successful health IT deployment. Individuals in this role would be qualified to serve as institutional/organizational information privacy or security officers. We anticipate that training appropriate to this role would require specialization within baccalaureate-level studies or a certificate of advanced studies or post-baccalaureate-level training in health information management, health informatics, or related fields, leading to a university-issued certificate or master’s degree.”

Category 3: Health Care and Public Health Informaticians
“These individuals will be based in universities, research centers, government agencies, and research and development divisions of software companies.”

10. Research and Development Scientist: (University-trained)
“These individuals will support efforts to create innovative models and solutions that advance the capabilities of health IT, and conduct studies on the effectiveness of health IT and its effect on health care quality. Individuals trained for these positions would also be expected to take positions as teachers in institutions of higher education including community colleges, building health IT training capacity across the nation. We anticipate that training appropriate to this role will require a doctoral degree in informatics or related fields for individuals not holding an advanced degree in one of the health professions, or a master’s degree for physicians or other individuals holding a doctoral degree in any health professions for which a doctoral degree is the minimum degree required to enter professional practice.”

11. Programmers and Software Engineer: (University-trained)
“We anticipate that these individuals will be the architects and developers of advanced health IT solutions. These individuals will be cross-trained in IT and health domains, thereby possessing a high level of familiarity with health domains to complement their technical skills in computer and information science. As such, the solutions they develop would be expected to reflect a sophisticated understanding of the problems being addressed and the special problems created by the culture, organizational context, and workflow of health care. We would expect that training appropriate to this role would generally require specialization within baccalaureate-level studies or a certificate of advanced studies or post-baccalaureate-level training in health informatics or related field, but a university-issued certificate of advanced training in a health-related topic area would as also seem appropriate for individuals with IT backgrounds.”

12. Health IT Sub-specialist: (University-trained)
“The ultimate success of health IT will require, as part of the workforce, a relatively small number of individuals whose training combines health care or public health generalist knowledge, knowledge of IT, and deep knowledge drawn from disciplines that inform health IT policy or technology. Such disciplines include ethics, economics, business, policy and planning, cognitive psychology, and industrial/systems engineering. The deep understanding of an external discipline, as it applies to health IT, will enable these individuals to complement the work of the research and development scientists described above. These individuals would be expected to find employment in research and development settings, and could serve important roles as teachers. We would expect that training appropriate to this type of role would require successful completion of at least a master’s degree in an appropriate discipline other than health informatics, but with a course of study that closely aligns with health IT. We would further expect that such individuals’ original research (e.g. master’s thesis) work would be on a topic directly related to health IT.”

Definition of Physician: For purposes of the University-based training programs, ”the term “physician” is defined as an individual holding one or more of the following degrees: doctor of medicine or osteopathy, doctor of medical dentistry, doctor of optometry, doctor of podiatric medicine, doctor of chiropractic. This definition is consistent with the definition of a physician in the Medicare program (Section 1861(r) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w—4), which is the established by SSA Section 1848(o), as added by the Recovery Act, as the definition of professionals eligible for the Medicare incentives for meaningful use of certified EHR technology authorized by the HITECH Act.”

For more about Community College Consortia Programs and map of regional areas, see this post on e-Heathcare Marketing.
For more about University-Based Training Programs, see this post on e-Heathcare Marketing.

HHS/ONC Awards $144 Million to Education and Research Institutions for Health IT Workforce and Research

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Mike Squires

HHS Awards $144 Million in Recovery Act Funds to Institutions of Higher Education and Research to Address Critical Needs for the Widespread Adoption and Meaningful Use of Health Information Technology: Apr 2 Press Release

Academia and the Research Community will support health providers by delivering more than 50,000 new health IT professionals to the workforce and addressing current and future barriers to achieving meaningful use of health IT

Press release issued by Dept of Health and Human Services April 2, 2010, produced in full below.
Washington, D. C.— Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has enlisted the talent and resources of some of the nation’s leading universities, community colleges, and major research centers to advance the widespread adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (health IT).

Awards totaling $84 million to 16 universities and junior colleges will support training and development of more than 50,000 new health IT professionals. Additionally Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) awards totaling $60 million were provided to four advanced research institutions ($15 million each) to focus on solving current and future challenges that represent barriers to adoption and meaningful use of health IT. Both sets of awards are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Today’s awards are part of the $2 billion effort to achieve widespread meaningful use of health IT and provide for the use of an electronic health record (EHR) for each person in the United States by 2014.

“Training a cadre of new health IT professionals and breaking down barriers to the adoption of meaningful use of health IT are both critical to the national effort to use information technology to realize better patient care,” stated David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, national coordinator for health information technology. “The institutions receiving awards today will develop necessary roadmaps to help health care providers and hospitals implement and effectively use electronic health records.”

Workforce Award recipients, by program area, include:

Community College Consortia Program ($36 million):

The Community College Consortia Program provides assistance to five regional recipients to establish a multi-institutional consortium within each designated region. The five regional consortia will include 70 community colleges in total. Each college will create non-degree training programs that can be completed in six months or less by individuals with appropriate prior education and/or experience. First year grant awards are estimated at $36 million. An additional $34 million is available for year two funding of these programs after successful completion of a mid-project evaluation.

Institution	Amount of Award
Bellevue College Bellevue, Washington	$ 3,364,798
Cuyahoga Community College District Cleveland, Ohio	$ 7,531,403
Los Rios Community College District Sacramento, California	$ 5,435,587
Pitt Community College Winterville, North Carolina	$10,901,009
Tidewater Community College Norfolk, Virginia	$ 8,492,793

(For more about Community College Consortia and map of regional areas, see this post on e-Heathcare Marketing.)

Curriculum Development Center ($10 million):

The Curriculum Development Centers will develop educational materials for key health IT topics to be used by the members of the Community College Consortia program. The materials will also be made available to institutions of higher education across the country. One of the centers will receive additional assistance to act as the National Training and Dissemination Center (NTDC) for the curriculum materials.

Institution	Amount of Award
University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, Alabama	$1,820,000
The Trustees of Columbia University New York City, New York	$1,820,000
Duke University Durham, North Carolina	$1,820,000
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland	$1,820,000
Oregon Health & Science University Portland, Oregon	$2,720,000*

*(Will also receive the NTDC awards)
(For more about Curriculum Development Centers, see this post on e-Heathcare Marketing.)

University-Based Training Programs ($32 million):

The University-based training programs will produce trained professionals for vital, highly specialized health IT roles. Most trainees in these programs will complete intensive courses of study in 12-months or less and receive a university-issued certificate of advanced training. Other trainees supported by these grants will study toward masters’ degrees.

Institution	Amount of Award
The Trustees of Columbia University New York City, New York	$3,786,677
University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing Denver, Colorado	$2,622,186
Duke University Durham, North Carolina	$2,167,121
George Washington University District of Columbia	$4,612,313
Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana	$1,406,469
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland	$3,752,512
University of Minnesota Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota	$5,145,705
Oregon Health & Science University Portland, Oregon	$3,085,812
Texas State University San Marcos, Texas	$5,421,205

(For more about University-Based Training Programs, see this post on e-Heathcare Marketing.)

Competency Examination Program ($6 million):

This program will support the development and initial administration of a set of health IT competency examinations. The program will create an objective measure to assess basic competency for individuals trained in short-term, non degree health IT programs and for members of the workforce seeking to demonstrate their competency in certain health IT workforce roles.

Institution	Amount of Award
Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, Virginia	$6,000,000

(For more about Competency Examination Program, see this post on e-Heathcare Marketing.)

Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program ($60 million):

The SHARP program recognizes the critical importance of research to support improvements in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare by creating “breakthrough” advances in information technology. The SHARP program targets four areas where improvements in technology are needed. The four SHARP award recipients, their areas of research focus and funding are:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ill. – Security of Health Information Technology – Developing security and risk mitigation policies and the technologies necessary to build and preserve the public trust as Health IT systems gain widespread use. $15 million.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas – Patient-Centered Cognitive Support – Harnessing the power of Health IT so that it integrates with, enhances and supports clinicians’ reasoning and decision-making. $15 million.
President and Fellows of Harvard College, Boston, Mass. – Healthcare Application and Network Platform Architectures – Developing new and improved architectures that will leverage benefits of today’s architecture and focus on the flexibility and scalability needs for the future to address significant increases in capture, storage and analysis of data. $15 million.
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. – Secondary Use of EHR Data– Strategies to make use of data that will be stored in EHRs for improving the overall quality of health care, while maintaining data privacy and security. $15 million.

(For David Blumenthal’s Letter and Charles Friedman’s ONC blog post about the SHARP program, please see this post on e-Healthcare Marketing.)

Information about the HITECH awards available through the workforce development program is available at http://HealthIT.HHS.gov/ and http://www.grants.gov/.

For information about other HHS Recovery Act programs, see http://www.hhs.gov/recovery.

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For Facts-At-A-Glance about all the Health IT Workforce Development Programs, see this post on e-Healthcare Marketing.

For the twelve Workforce roles being developed for Health IT, see this list on e-Healthcare Marketing.

ONC Awards $84 Million for Health IT Workforce Development Programs

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Mike Squires

ONC Awards $84 Million for Health IT Workforce Development Program
Community College Training, University Certificate and Advanced Programs, Curriculum Development, and Competency Exams
Facts-At-A-Glance included
Released on Web site of Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT on April 2, 2010, $84 Million was awarded across four major programs to develop and deliver a workforce of professionals trained to support the HITECH initiative and rollout of Electronic Health Records. ONC’s Facts-At-A-Glance provides a summary of the programs with links to additional information. The e-Healthcare Marketing blog has excerpted this selection, as well as descriptions and and awards of the four programs in separate posts on April 2, 2010. Also the SHARP Research awards were made on the same day, and are described elsewhere on e-Healthcare Marketing, based on the ONC site.

Facts-At-A-Glance
(This entire section below was excerpted from ONC site on April 2, 2010.)

Section 3016 of the HITECH Act authorizes the creation of a program to assist in the establishment and/or expansion of education programs designed to train a highly skilled workforce of health information technology (health IT) professionals to effectively put in place and enable the use of secure, interoperable electronic health record systems.
Under that authority, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has awarded $84 million in funding for the Health IT Workforce Development Program.
The Health IT Workforce Development Program focuses on several key resources needed to rapidly expand the availability of skilled health IT professionals who will support broad adoption and use of health IT in the provider community. These resources include:
- A community college training program to create a workforce that can facilitate the implementation and support of an electronic healthcare system
- High quality educational materials that institutions of higher education can use to construct core instructional programs
- A competency examination program to evaluate trainee knowledge and skills acquired through non-degree training programs
- Additional university programs to support certificate and advanced degree training
Few U.S. doctors or hospitals — perhaps 17% and 10%, respectively— have even basic EHRs, and there are significant barriersto their adoption and use: their substantial cost, the perceivedlack of financial return from investing in them, the technicaland logistic challenges involved in installing, maintaining,and updating them, and consumers’ and physicians’ concerns aboutthe privacy and security of electronic health information. HITECHaddresses these obstacles head-on; as a resultthe anticipated growth in the use of EHR systems is expected to result in a dramatic increase in demand for health IT professionals.
(Blumenthal D. Stimulating the adoption of health information technology. N Engl J Med 2009;360:1477-1479. [Full Text]
Estimates based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Education, and independent studies indicate a shortfall over the next five years of approximately 50,000 qualified health IT workers required to meet the needs of hospitals and physicians as they move to adopt electronic health care systems.
In collaboration with the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, and the Department of Labor, the ONC designed the Health IT Workforce Development Program to assist in the training and assessment of qualified graduates, who will reduce the estimated shortfall by 85 percent.

Program Descriptions
Community College Consortia Program
Curriculum Development Centers Program
Competency Examination Program
University-Based Training Program

Community College Consortia to Educate Information Technology Specialists in Health Care

The Community College Consortia Program provides approximately $70 million in assistance through cooperative agreements to five regional consortia. The five regions were created by pairing contiguous regions based on the population of the region.
Each funded consortium will consist of a lead awardee and a number of identified member community colleges located within the region.
Community colleges funded under this initiative will establish intensive, non-degree training programs that can be completed in six months or less by individuals with appropriate prior education and/or experience.
Trainees are expected to be trained in six HIT priority workforce roles, including:
practice workflow and information management redesign specialists; clinician/practitioner consultants; implementation support specialists; implementation managers; and technical/software support staff and trainers.
It is expected that by the end of the two-year project period, the participating community colleges will have collectively established training programs with the capacity to train at least 10,500 students annually to be part of the health IT workforce.
Cooperative agreements were awarded in April 2010 for a two-year project period.

Additional information is available at

http://HealthIT.HHS.Gov/communitycollege

Information Technology Professionals in Health Care: Curriculum Development Centers

The Curriculum Development Centers Program provides approximately $10 million in assistance through cooperative agreements to five non-profit institutions of higher education to develop curriculum and instructional materials to enhance workforce training programs primarily at the community college level.
Materials prepared in collaboration with community colleges and aligned with a common set of nationally validated competencies will enable the rapid launch of standardized academic programs that meet the needs of the health care industry.
Materials developed under this program will be used by the members of the Community College Consortia Program as well as be made available to institutions of higher education across the country.
One of the awardees under this program will receive additional funding to serve as a National Training and Dissemination Center that will train instructors, collect feedback from instructors and students, coordinate subsequent revisions of the curriculum materials, and manage version control of the revised materials.
Cooperative agreements were awarded in April 2010 for a two-year project period.

Additional information is available at

http://HealthIT.HHS.Gov/curriculumdevelopment

Information Technology Professionals in Health Care: Competency Examination for Individuals Completing Non-Degree Training

The Competency Examination Program provides approximately $6 million in assistance through a cooperative agreement to one institution of higher education to support the development and initial administration of a set of health IT competency examinations.
This program will create an objective mechanism to assess basic competency for individuals trained through short-duration, non-degree health IT programs, and for members of the workforce with relevant experience or other types of training who are seeking to demonstrate their competency in one or more workforce roles.

The competency examinations will be available at no charge to the first 10,000 examinees as part of the national Health IT Workforce Development Program.
A cooperative agreement was awarded in April 2010 for a two-year project period.

Additional information is available at

http://HealthIT.HHS.Gov/competencyexamination

Information Technology Professionals in Health Care: Program of Assistance for University-Based Training

The University-Based Training Program provides approximately $32 million in assistance through competitively awarded training grants to nine institutions of higher education to establish programs that will rapidly increase the availability of individuals qualified to serve in specific health IT professional roles requiring university-level training.
Each educational program will address one or more of the six targeted roles below, and each institution will include programs that address at least three of these roles.
Clinical/public health leader
Health information management and exchange specialist
Health information privacy and security specialist
Research and development scientist
Programmer and software engineer
Health IT sub-specialist

Educational programs developed under these grants are expected to generate additional graduates in vital, highly specialized health IT roles over the course of the three-year grant period. The highly trained and specialized personnel developed through these programs will play an extremely important role in supporting meaningful use of health IT nationwide.

The majority of the programs are expected to be completed in 12 months or less and lead to a university-issued certificate of advanced training (e.g., post-baccalaureate or graduate certificate) or a master’s degree.
Cooperative agreements were awarded in April 2010 for a 39-month project period.

Additional information is available at http://HealthIT.HHS.Gov/universitytraining

ONC Awards $6 MM for Competency Examination Program to Northern Virginia Community College

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Mike Squires

ONC Awards $6 MM for Competency Examination Program
to Northern Virginia Community College
Excerpted from ONC site April 2, 2010: “The purpose of the Competency Examination for Individuals Completing Non-Degree Training program, one component of the Workforce Program, is to provide funding for institutions of higher education (or consortia thereof) to support the development and initial administration of a set of health IT competency examinations. The examinations assess basic competency for two types of individuals who are seeking to demonstrate their competency in certain health IT workforce roles integral to achieving meaningful use of electronic health information:

Individuals trained through short-duration, non-degree health IT programs
Members of the workforce with relevant experience or other types of training

“In April 2010, ONC awarded $6 million in a single two-year cooperative agreement to Northern Virginia Community College. Development of the competency examinations will benefit institutions of higher education by providing them with a set of health IT competency examinations that they may use to evaluate, develop, and improve health IT educational programs. These competency examinations will enable health IT professionals, employers, and other stakeholder to assess their own health IT competency levels or the competency of their health IT staff members, as appropriate. The examinations may also be used by employers to identify training gaps and personnel needs integral to achieving meaningful use of electronic health information.”

Learn more about the Competency Examination Program:

Workforce Facts-At-A-Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

Original Funding Announcement

University-Based Training Programs Awarded $32MM: Six Health IT Roles

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Mike Squires

University-Based Training Programs Awarded $32MM: Six Health IT Roles
Excerpted from ONC site April 2, 2010: “One of four workforce development programs ONC has developed under Section 3016 of the Public Health Service Act, as added by the Recovery Act, this program is designed to rapidly and sustainably increase the availability of individuals qualified to serve in specific health IT professional roles requiring university-level training. The colleges and universities listed below are charged with promptly establishing new and/or expanded training programs as rapidly as possible while assuring their graduates are well prepared to fulfill their chosen health IT professional roles. Many of these programs can be completed by the trainee in one year or less. All of the programs are expected to remain once established with the support of this grant.

“The six roles targeted by this program are:
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, the following Colleges and Universities were granted awards for the Program of Assistance for University-Based Training:

Institution	Funding Amount
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
Texas State University	$5,421,205

“Each awardee institution is responsible for recruiting, selecting, and administering any student financial assistance that may be supported under this grant. For more information on each institution’s enrollment, financial assistance, and graduation requirements, please contact the institution directly. Contact information for each awardee will be available soon.”

Learn more about the Program of Assistance for University-Based Training:

Workforce Facts-at-a-Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

Original Funding Announcement

e-Healthcare Marketing

Health Information Exchange, Electronic Health Records and Personal Health Records

Author Archives: Mike Squires

About Mike Squires

Q&A: Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances

General Questions and Answers
[As of 03/31/2010]
DEA Office of Diversion Control

GENERAL
Q. What is DEA’s rule “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances?”

AUDITS AND CERTIFICATION OF APPLICATIONS
Q. Who can conduct an audit or certify an application?

NJIT Receives More than $23 Mil for NJ Regional Extension Center: NJ-HITEC

Blumenthal Letter #13: Preparing Professionals for a Nationwide Health Care Transformation

HHS/ONC Name 28 Regional Extension Centers; 60 Total RECs to Convert 100,000 Primary Care Clinicians to EHR Users

Press Release from HHS released April 6, 2010
HHS Announces $267 Million in Recovery Act Funds for New Health IT Regional Extension Centers

Blumenthal Letter #12: Paving the Path to Progress with a Roadmap for Health IT

ONC Funds Twelve Health IT Priority Workforce Roles’ Training: What are They?

HHS/ONC Awards $144 Million to Education and Research Institutions for Health IT Workforce and Research

ONC Awards $84 Million for Health IT Workforce Development Programs

ONC Awards $6 MM for Competency Examination Program to Northern Virginia Community College

University-Based Training Programs Awarded $32MM: Six Health IT Roles

About Mike Squires

General Questions and Answers [As of 03/31/2010] DEA Office of Diversion Control

GENERAL Q. What is DEA’s rule “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances?”

AUDITS AND CERTIFICATION OF APPLICATIONS Q. Who can conduct an audit or certify an application?

General Questions and Answers
[As of 03/31/2010]
DEA Office of Diversion Control

GENERAL
Q. What is DEA’s rule “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances?”

AUDITS AND CERTIFICATION OF APPLICATIONS
Q. Who can conduct an audit or certify an application?