Webinar: Overcoming Health IT Workforce Challenges in the Safety Net Community

Friday, April 1, 2011 – 2:00-3:30 PM  ET
Sponsored by HRSA’s Office of HIT & Quality

Webinar will feature three expert speakers discussing health IT workforce challenges and solutions in overcoming them.  Training, development, and retention of the workforce are critical challenges for successfully implementing and sustaining a health information technology (IT) system in health centers and critical access hospitals.  The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 150,000 health IT professionals will be needed in the future for the nation to successfully become meaningful users of health IT systems. Presenters are:

Angela Duncan Diop, ND, Director of Information Systems, Unity Health Care, Inc.
Chief Information Officer of the 30-site health center network, Unity Health Care, and HRSA grantee, Ms. Diop will talk about how Unity identified, assessed, and overcame long- and short-term health IT workforce challenges.Kay Gooding, Director of the Health IT Program, Pitt Community College
P. David Falkenstein, MS, PA-C, DFAAPA, Director of HIM Programs,
Northern Virginia Community College
Both speakers are grantees of the Community College Health IT Workforce Program, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).  As part of the HITECH Act, ONC has funded more than 70 community colleges in all 50 states to develop or improve non-degree health IT training programs that can be completed in six months or less.  These programs will help train more than 10,500 new health IT professionals by 2012.  Presenters will also provide an overview of training opportunities and the competency exam.  In addition, they will explain how their programs target and provide health IT training opportunities to rural, urban, and minority safety net providers.

Registration Link: http://webcast.streamlogics.com/audience/index.asp?eventid=90560548