American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Information Technology Professionals in Health Care: Competency Examination for Individuals

This funding opportunity will support the development and initial administration of a set of health information technology competency examinations. The awardee will create an objective mechanism to assess basic competency for individuals trained through short-duration, non-degree health IT programs, and for members of the workforce with relevant experience or other types of training who are seeking to demonstrate their competency in one or more of the workforce roles described in Appendix B, Health IT Workforce Roles and Competencies. Faculty experts from community colleges and universities participating in program and curriculum development will provide the domain knowledge to structure the examinations and compose the test items. As part of the development process, the content of the examinations will also be validated with stakeholders, including industry and employer groups. Development of the competency examinations will benefit the awardee and other institutions of higher education by providing them with a set of health IT competency examinations that they may use to evaluate, develop, and improve health IT educational programs. The competency examinations described under this funding opportunity announcement will enable health IT professionals, employers, and other stakeholder to assess their own health IT competency levels or the competency of their health IT staff members, as appropriate. The examinations may also be used by employers to identify training gaps and personnel needs integral to achieving meaningful use of electronic health information.