A Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor will lead an initiative, funded by a $3.75 million federal grant, to develop a master's program in health information technology.

Harold Lehmann, MD, associate professor at the school of medicine, is director of training and research for the Johns Hopkins Division of Health Sciences Informatics.

"The academic Informatics Division at Hopkins has worked for over 10 years to create a full program of education for the informatics workforce, ranging from innovative informatics research to evaluation of effective healthcare IT to leadership in design, implementation and deployment of health IT in clinical care and in public health," Lehmann said. "This grant, building as it does on our existing activities, gives us a terrific opportunity to grow these efforts even further and to have Hopkins play a major role in supporting the health IT landscape for Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as for public health nationally."

Patricia Abbott, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Jonathan Weiner, professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health will co-direct the grant.

One of nine universities awarded funds to advance healthcare IT training, Johns Hopkins will use the grant to further develop informatics courses already offered across the three schools and to offer partial funding to students.

The other universities awarded grants, which were announced on April 2, are:

• The Trustees of Columbia University, New York City - $3,786,677
• University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing, Denver, Colo. - $2,622,186
• Duke University, Durham, N.C. - $2,167,121
• George Washington University, District of Columbia - $4,612,313
• Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. - $1,406,469
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. - $5,145,705
• Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Ore.- $3,085,812
• Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas- $5,421,205

The grants emphasize shorter-format programs. Among them are the certificate training programs. Hopkins already offers certificate programs, which will also be available online beginning in the fall of 2010. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine also offers a master's degree in applied health sciences informatics, which is completed in 12 months, and a research informatics master's program (with thesis), which is completed in 24 months.

In a separate, but related award also announced on April 2, Abbott said the school will use a $1.8 million HITECH grant to develop a curriculum for health information technology workforce development.

"Despite mounting evidence that electronic health records have the power to transform healthcare, many hospitals, clinicians, and others aren't using them," said Abbott. She said the shortfall of healthcare IT workers - approximately 50,000 – is a major barrier to adoption.

The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Curriculum Development Center is one of five centers that will develop a six- to 12-month informatics curriculum for deployment in U.S. community colleges. The aim is to give community colleges the capacity and ability to educate healthcare IT workers, while helping college instructors supplement their own level of knowledge.

The other four centers are:

• University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Ala. - $1,820,000
• The Trustees of Columbia University, New York City - $1,820,000
• Duke University, Durham, N.C. - $1,820,000
• Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Ore. - $2,720,000 (Will also receive the NTDC award.)