{"id":58,"date":"2009-11-24T12:04:16","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T17:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthit.hhs.gov\/blog\/onc\/?p=58"},"modified":"2026-01-06T15:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T15:14:08","slug":"preparing-health-it-workforce-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/blog\/insights-updates\/preparing-health-it-workforce-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing the Health IT Workforce of Tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/news\/press\/2009pres\/11\/20091124a.html\">Today\u2019s announcement<\/a> of $80 million in Recovery Act funds for workforce training marks the first in a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/interoperability\/investments#past-investments\">HITECH grant programs<\/a> to address our nation\u2019s growing need for highly skilled and trained health IT professionals. The development of this workforce will have a significant impact through job creation in two fields \u2013 technology and health care \u2013 that comprise a significant portion of our economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we move toward broad adoption and use of electronic health records in medical practices, we will need more than 50,000 qualified and trained health IT professionals to support our modernized health system. We need to \u201cgrow\u201d a corps of talent to support rising demand sparked by the upcoming HITECH incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>How do we get 50,000 workers ready to usher in the digital information age in health care?<\/em> We intend to leverage the nation\u2019s community colleges as the training ground for health IT professionals.&nbsp; These institutions are present in many of our communities and offer the reach, flexibility, and diversity we need to help assure that the proper educational resources are available for both experienced and new IT professionals looking to play a role in this important evolution in health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a physician who has had to incorporate EHRs into my daily practice, I understand how important it is to have well-trained IT support on hand that understand not only the technology, but its unique applications in patient care. I\u2019ve often characterized information as the \u201clifeblood\u201d of modern medicine, and health IT as the \u201ccirculatory system.\u201d Well, these are the people who will make sure the \u2018lifeblood\u2019 keeps flowing through the system. This is why workforce initiatives are among the first programs to be formally unveiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the next few days, you will be hearing more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/news\/press\/2009pres\/11\/20091124a.html\">community college training programs and curriculum development<\/a> to help strengthen the health IT workforce. And in the coming weeks, additional programs to fund workforce training and development will be announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the workforce training grants are published you can find application information and deadlines <a href=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/about\/funding-announcements\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. \u2013 National Coordinator for Health Information Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s announcement of $80 million in Recovery Act funds for workforce training marks the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_selected_menu":"","_show_breadcrumbs":"true","_blog_show_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"archived-category":[682,683,684,765,715],"featured":[],"topics":[452,439,425,441,449],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights-updates","archived-category-community-college-consortia","archived-category-competency-exam-program","archived-category-curriculum-development-centers","archived-category-from-the-onc-desk","archived-category-university-based-training","topics-hit-curriculum-resources","topics-historical-programs","topics-hit-policy","topics-hitech-programs","topics-resources"],"acf":{"blog_authors":[{"blog_author_profiles":"198443"}],"hp_news_hide":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.5 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Preparing the Health IT Workforce of Tomorrow - ONC Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interested in joining the emerging health information technology workforce? 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