Innovation in Health IT: A Key Component to Improving Care

A key component of securing a healthy future for all Americans relies on harnessing innovation in health information technology. The new Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program announced Friday and funded at a level of $60 million through the HITECH Act, is designed with this purpose in mind. This program will fund projects in areas of research where breakthrough advances are needed to address barriers in health IT adoption. Addressing these breakthrough areas will require the most advanced thinking the nation can bring to bear. Each research project will be charged with formulating and executing an ambitious research agenda. This research agenda will focus on specific goals of HITECH, and the challenges to adoption of health IT and achieving meaningful use that are critical to realizing the full promise of health IT. Each research project will be responsible for thinking ahead of the curve and developing innovative solutions to navigate health IT barriers. The projects selected for participation in the SHARP Program will implement a collaborative, multidisciplinary program of research addressing short-term and long-term challenges within one of four focus areas: security of health IT, patient-centered cognitive support, health care application and network architectures, and secondary use of EHR data. Research in these areas is critical to improving health care through the use of health IT.