More than 1,200 interested parties logged in to partake in the 90-minute Web conference.

Grant Program Goals

Farzad Mostashari, ONC senior adviser, said the government will award grants of $8.5 million to $9 million to help not-for-profit organizations establish 70 regional health IT extension centers nationwide (McCloskey, Government Health IT, 8/28).

In addition, the National Health IT Research Center will receive $50 million to serve as a resource to the regional centers (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 8/28).

ONC said it hopes each extension center will train about 1,500 primary care providers on electronic health record adoption, with the goal of helping 100,000 primary care providers demonstrate “meaningful use” of health IT.

The extension centers would provide health IT education, outreach, and resources on best practices (Government Health IT, 8/28).

In addition, the centers would provide guidance and trouble-shooting for a wide range of EHR vendor products, Mostashari said. He added that the extension centers should avoid promoting a single health IT vendor (Modern Healthcare, 8/28).

Target Health Care Providers

Mostashari said the grant program first will strive to provide health IT training to primary care providers and group practices with 10 or fewer physicians.

He added that the program also plans to offer services to health care providers in community health centers, public hospitals and rural clinics (Government Health IT, 8/28).

Above article published on

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/Articles/2009/8/28/ONC-Offers-Guidance-on-Grants-for-Health-IT-Extension-Centers.aspx