Educational Opportunities
The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), within the Department of Health and Human Services, has offered incentives to physicians and hospitals to implement electronic health records that meet meaningful use standards. They have made available grants to assist training and education of health care professionals to use and implement EHR's and other new technologies.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 provides funding to several existing workforce development programs. These programs assist with the development of current and future workforce in health information technology. There are many opportunities through various community colleges.
Austin Community College
Dallas County Community College District, Temple College, and Austin Community College District offer an intensive online CE program which trains for six Health IT workforce roles. The online program is designed for self-motivated experienced, Healthcare and IT professionals and can be completed in less than six months.
Upon completion of the program, graduates are expected to sit for the national competency exam Health Information Technology Professional (HIT-PRO), developed by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Graduates will find employment with healthcare institutions physician offices, and vendors of Electronic Health Records.
You can download their brochure and for more details visit Temple College's website or Austin Community College District's website.
Midland College - HITECH Workforce Programs
The HITECH Workforce Program at Midland College is designed to cross-train professionals with a background in HIT or IT and prepare them for the federal initiative of Electronic Health Records implementation.
- Curriculum developed by Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Duke, University of Alabama and Oregon State University HSC.
- All course materials are online - no books to buy!
- 100% tuition reimbursement available.
- Can be completed in six months or less.
- Job placement assistance available.
You can download their brochure and for more details visit their website or call 432-685-6891.
Texas State University - PURE HIT
The Professional University Resources and Education for Health Information Technology (PURE HIT) is a collaborative project of Texas State University - San Marcus, The University of Texas at Austin, and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
The goal of the PURE HIT project is to train individuals for careers in the health information technology (HIT) field, focusing on electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) implementation.
After completing one of the programs offered by this project, individuals will be qualified for roles in healthcare such as:
- Clinician/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
You can download their brochure. and for more details visit their website