U of I receives $15 million SHARP award to address security of health information technology

From press release

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has enlisted the talent and resources of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to advance the widespread adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (health IT).

HHS announced April 2 that awards totaling $84 million have been made to 16 universities and junior colleges to 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 also 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. The 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.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will receive a $15 million SHARP award to address security of health information technology, specifically developing security and risk mitigation policies and the technologies necessary to build and preserve the public trust as health IT systems gain widespread use.

“Breaking down barriers to the adoption of meaningful use of health IT is critical to the national effort to use information technology to realize better patient care,” said David Blumenthal, M.D., MPP, national coordinator for health information technology. “The SHARP effort will contribute to the development of the necessary roadmaps to help health care providers and hospitals implement and effectively use electronic health records.”

A complete listing of HHS health IT workforce and SHARP awards can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/04/20100402a.html.

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

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

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