University of Minnesota wins $5M health informatics grant

A consortium led by the University of Minnesota will receive $5.1 million in federal stimulus money to expand training in health informatics.

The school, along with the University of Minnesota campus in Crookston and College of St. Scholastica, will use the funds to develop curriculum, recruit students and evaluate programs.

With the recently passed healthcare reform law emphasizing the use of technology like electronic medical records to lower costs and improve quality, university officials say it’s crucial the school train students in informatics, the science of collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data.

’Data and data management is becoming an integral part of daily life, especially in healthcare,’ Ray Gensinger, chief medical information officer at Fairview Health Services, said in a statement. ’As Fairview and the University of Minnesota move forward on this and other joint initiatives, a knowledgeable healthcare community is imperative to make transformational changes in healthcare.’

Beginning this fall, the consortium will offer courses in computer science, nursing informatics and health services research, policy and administration.