HHS launches $60M program to fund health IT research projects
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| David Blumenthal, National Health IT Coordinator Image source: www.hhs.gov |
SHARP projects will conduct research in areas where advances are needed to address existing barriers to the adoption and meaningful use of health IT, according to the agency.
“As we continue this unprecedented effort towards meaningful use and seamless, secure information exchange, we also must acknowledge that there remains a gap between the promise of health IT and the realization of its full benefits,” Blumenthal said. “Under the SHARP program, four awardees will receive funding to develop multidisciplinary research projects that will identify such breakthrough solutions.”
The SHARP program identified barriers to adoption in the following four areas:
- Security of Health IT: To address the challenges of developing security and risk mitigation policies and the technologies necessary to build and preserve the public trust as health IT systems become ubiquitous.
- Patient-Centered Cognitive Support: To harness health IT in a patient-focused manner and align the technology with the day-to-day practice of medicine.
- Healthcare Application and Network Platform Architectures: To focus on the development of improved architectures necessary to achieve electronic exchange and use of health information in a secure and manner.
- Secondary Use of EHR Data: To identify strategies to enhance the use of health IT in improving the quality of healthcare, population health and clinical research while protecting patient privacy.
According to HHS, each project will identify and implement a research agenda addressing the specific goals of the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, and identify the barriers to adoption and meaningful use of heath IT that will be addressed in their research area.
The agency also expects to award qualified applicants cooperative agreements to support research efforts in these four project areas. Each agreement will last four years. Awardees will implement an interdisciplinary program of research addressing short-term and long-term challenges. Additionally, the projects are expected to develop and implement a cooperative program between researchers, healthcare providers and other health IT sector stakeholders to incorporate research results into health IT practice and products.
Authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and part of the HITECH provisions of ARRA, the cooperative agreements are part of a series of grants to help strengthen and support the use of health IT.
Applications are due on Jan. 25, 2010, with awards anticipated in March 2010.
“[T]his research will provide critical insights that will bring us closer every day to a better, more efficient health care delivery system, enabled by health IT and empowered by the seamless and secure exchange of electronic health information,” Blumenthal said.