Dr. David Blumenthal, the Department of Health and Human Services' National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has announced $80 million will be made available in the form of grants intended to develop and strengthen the health information technology workforce. The grants will include $70 million for community college training programs and $10 million for the development of to develop educational materials in support of the training programs. The programs should help address the need for skilled health information technology (health IT) professionals and broaden the use of health IT throughout the country.

"Ensuring the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), information exchange among health care providers and public health authorities, and redesign of workflows within health care settings all depend on having a qualified pool of workers," Dr. Blumenthal said in an HHS press release. "The expansion of a highly skilled workforce developed through these programs will help health care providers and hospitals implement and maintain EHRs and use them to strengthen delivery of care."

According to the HHS, the Community College program will establish intensive, non-degree training that can be completed in six months or less by individuals with some background in either health care or IT fields. The curriculum development program will have high quality educational materials available for community colleges so the training programs can be more quickly established.

The HHS says any U.S. non-profit institution of higher learning currently providing training in health IT and interested in drafting curriculum or establishing a consortium that includes community colleges may apply for the grants. Information concerning grant applications will soon be available at http://healthIT.HHS.gov/HITECHgrants.

Dr. Blumenthal has also announced the launch of Health IT Buzz, a new blog for readers to learn more about health IT and provide opportunity for consumers, providers, policymakers, and technology experts to share ideas and concerns regarding health IT. The blog is available at http://healthit.hhs.gov/blog/onc.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's activities to be discussed on the blog include: advancing standards to achieve interoperability; evaluation of new options for the certification of electronic health records; exploration of health IT related regulatory and guidance initiatives to protect the privacy and security of health information; and an assessment of critical privacy and security issues.