The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced three new grant programs that awarded a total of $38 million to 20 entities to advance the use of health IT, FierceHealthIT reports. 

Details of Grant Programs

The first grant program -- called the Advance Interoperable Health Information Technology Services to Support Health Information Exchange -- focuses on expanding the adoption of health information exchange technology, tools and services. The two-year cooperative agreement program dispersed a total of $29.6 million among 12 "states or state-designated entities," including the:

• Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology;
• California Emergency Medical Services Authority;
• Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing;
• Delaware Health Information Network;
• Illinois Health Information Exchange Authority;
• Nebraska Department of Administrative Services;
• New Hampshire Health Information Organization Corporation;
• New Jersey Innovation Institute;
• Oregon Health Authority;
• Rhode Island Quality Institute;
• South Carolina Health Information Partners; and
• Utah Health Information Network.

The second grant program -- called the Community Health Peer Learning Program -- awarded $2.2 million to health services research organization AcademyHealth over two years to help identify best health IT practices for population health management in 15 communities (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 7/28).

The third program -- called the Workforce Training Program -- provided $6.7 million to seven entities over two years to bolster workforce training by updating materials and ensuring "incumbent health care workers" are using health IT tools across various settings.  The grant recipients include:

• Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington;
• Columbia University;
• Johns Hopkins University;
• Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota;
• Oregon Health & Science University;
• The University of Alabama at Birmingham; and
• The University of Texas Health Science in Houston (HHS release, 7/28).