Collaborative Initiatives

Health Information Techonology

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in 2009. Through this Office, a strong national focus was created to inform, educate, and promote the use of electronic records to improve the quality of healthcare in this country.

According to the ONC, “Health information technology (health IT) makes it possible for health care providers to better manage patient care through secure use and sharing of health information. Health IT includes the use of electronic health records (EHRs) instead of paper medical records to maintain people's health information.”

To advance the use of health information technology, the ONC issued several invitations for competitive grant proposals. One of the grant programs—Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals Program—invited community colleges to form consortia to rapidly develop and deploy certificate programs consisting of online courses that could be completed in six months or less. Three of the successful consortia have member institutions located in the WICHE states as listed on the program’s site.

Beginning in fall 2010, the participating community colleges will offer online courses in HIT. Some of them may share extra capacity in these courses with their consortia partners and others via ICE to reach their enrollment goals and to help other institutions respond to community needs in this arena if they lack the resources to do so on their own.

Other ICE institutions—both two-year and four-year—are exploring ways they might work together to exchange seats in telemedicine courses and more advanced HIT courses. An inventory of their current course offerings is helping to inform that discussion. New partners are welcome!

Adams State College
Beth Apodaca, Curriculum and Evaluation Specialist

Boise State University
Kelley Brandt, Asst. Director Distance Learning
Linda Osgood, Assistant Professor and Director of HIIM Program
Sarah Toevs, Professor and Dept Chair of Community and Environmental Health

Flathead Valley Community College
Patrick Pezzelle, Director, Extended Learning

Montana State University, Billings
Michael Barber, Chief Information Officer & Institutional Research
Diane Duin, Program Director, Health Administration

Montana Tech of The University of Montana
James Aspevig, Informatics Section Supervisor

Regis University
Sheila Carlon, Director, Health Services Administration

University of Alaska Anchorage
Tom Miller, Assistant Provost
Sheila Soule, Special Projects Director
Robin Wahto, Director of Allied Health

University of Alaska Southeast
Leslie Gordon, Program Director, Health Information Management

University of Wyoming
Rex E. Gantenbein, Professor, Medical Education & Public Health