Funds awarded for medical IT training

To meet a shortage of qualified information technology, or IT, workers in the health field, $84 million in cooperative agreements have been awarded to the nationwide Health IT Workforce Development Program to help ensure that health professionals have the technical support they need to adopt electronic health records.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) awarded the ONC program the funds, which are expected to reduce the shortfall of skilled health IT professionals by 85 percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Education, has indicated a national shortage of at least 51,000 qualified health IT workers needed in hospitals and medical practices as they adopt electronic health care systems. The government indicates these jobs will increase fastest through 2018, and that the demand far exceeds the supply of qualified workers.

Marsha Okajima, Hawaii Community College coordinator for Hawaii Island, reported that the Health IT Training provides education for the following electronic health records jobs: implementation support specialist, practice workflow and information management redesign specialist, technical software support, implementation manager and trainer.

Okajima said the intensive training consists of 14 online courses that must be completed in six months. Applicants must have either a medical or IT background, or equivalent experience.

The program tuition is $25 until grant funds are exhausted, after which it will cost $1,000, said Okajima.

Applications are available online at www.hawaii.hawaii.edu/ocet and by emailing marshao@hawaii.edu or by calling Hawaii Community College’s Office of Continuing Education and Training at 934-2700.