Maine collaborative receives $50K for health informatics initiative

The Growing Portland collaborative, a City of Portland initiative to create jobs, generate investments and attract young workers, has received a $50,000 grant to study the possibility of establishing a health informatics sector in Maine..

The collaborative received $25,000 from the Maine Technology Institute (MTI), while a group of healthcare and local business organizations funded the other half. The program, called the Health Informatics Assessment Project, will ascertain:

  1. Current assets in health informatics (who’s engaged, how many, at what levels);
  2. Future needs to meet health informatics growth (what are the opportunities and limitations); and
  3. The potential for a center for health informatics in Greater Portland.

“Projects like this are exactly why we developed the Growing Portland collaborative,” said Portland Mayor Michael Brennan said in a statement. “Along with our initiatives in the marine economy and local workforce development, Growing Portland is looking carefully at health informatics, which we believe can bring high-paying jobs to the city and region. The MTI grant will help us to investigate this potential, and begin to build the programs and resources to attract people and investments to the region.”

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