Friday, February 12, 2010

The First $1 Billion Arrives

At noon today, HHS announced nearly $1 Billion in grant funding for Healthcare IT.


Massachusetts received $10.6 million for health information exchange and $13.4 million for regional extension center activities.

Now the next phase of our work can begin. We look forward to the challenges and achievements ahead.

Update - on March 15, $161 million in additional HIE grants were announced.

2 comments:

George said...

Very curious, is there any accountability with these grants?

Is someone taking notice with the ROI?

So much money, but clinical informatics still in the dark ages, HL7, HITSP, CDISC, HIE, HSSP, NHIN, etc, all good work, but hospital CIO's just sit back and drink the vendor's kool aid. That is, healthcare vendors' agenda is counter to "open" standards.

Had insightful discussions with standards evangelists, the future for "real" EHR sharing lies with next generations of clinical providers.

Perhaps, another 20 years for the current leaders to fade away...

Prepared Mind said...

I spoke yesterday to the person in my state who will administer the programs of the extension center.

I was shocked.

They have decided to put together a vendor relations committee comprised of the vendors with the most market share in our state.

They have also decided that only extension center staff will provide HIT planning and implementation services.

This is a great way to snuff out innovative new approaches to satisfying meaningful use requirements.

Do you have advice on governance of the extension centers?