Back in July, I wrote an article about developing a health IT workforce within the community college system that will be needed to help physician groups and healthcare systems implement EMRs and EHRs with the passage of the ARRA legislation.

The idea belonged to Allan Korn, MD, senior vice president of Clinical Affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, who saw community colleges as the perfect venue to produce an affordable workforce of health IT experts for small physician groups and rural health systems. It made sense, and in fact, the Borough of Manhattan Community College began offering two courses on EHR use and implementation this past September. The courses were developed by Network Infrastructure Technologies (NIT) and the Manhattan Education Opportunity Center. One course is for physicians and nurses, while the other course is dedicated to IT and project management. Back in August, NIT's CEO Lior Blik said that among the 20 City Universities of New York (CUNY) that have expressed interest one other CUNY wants to implement a similar course and had applied for a grant to formalize it into a program.

Leaving no stone unturned, the Obama administration recently announced an $80 million program to fund healthcare IT workforce training and curriculum development through community colleges. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT is overseeing the grants and set two deadlines in January for community colleges to apply for part of the $70 million set aside for health IT workforce training and $10 million to develop educational materials for the programs.

No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you have to give credit to the administration and ONC for understanding the lay of the land. If you give out millions of dollars to push health IT adoption, you need to address areas that will be impacted by such a hugh initiative. Ensuring that the health IT workforce is fully staffed and highly trained is critical to the HITECH Act's success. They will be the ones working closely with many physicians who are uncertain about the benefits. The grants to community colleges will help beef up the health IT workforce. Once those funds are distributed, it's up to the community colleges to develop a strong program and turn out a capable workforce.

Perhaps the existing programs, albeit emerging ones themselves, will serve as models for other communities. One hope ONC monitors progra development to ensure money is spent wisely.