HHS awards $137M for IT-supported public health
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The grants will seek to enhance state, tribal, local and territorial efforts to strengthen public health laboratory and immunization services, prevent healthcare-associated infections, provide tobacco cessation services, as well as provide substance abuse prevention and treatment.
The grants will fund state and local public health programs supported through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Most of these grant dollars come from the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the PPACA. Additional SAMHSA dollars supplement this investment.
The HHS awards include:
- $1 million to further enhance U.S. public health laboratories by hiring and preparing scientists for careers, providing training for scientists and supporting public health initiatives related to infectious disease research.
- More than $42 million to support: improvements to the Immunization Information Systems (registries) and other immunization information technologies; development of systems to improve billing for immunization services; planning and implementation of adult immunization programs; enhancement of vaccination capacity located in schools; and evaluations of the impact on disease of recent vaccine recommendations for children and adolescents.
A full list of grantees is available here.