A Medical Device Daily

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program (CAP) reported the award of a four-year, $10.3 million grant to the State of Indiana to further enhance the quality and reach of the state's existing health information technology (HIT) delivery system.

The grant will be made to the state through a new state-chartered non-profit entity created for this program, Indiana Health Information Technology, (IHIT).

In October 2009, BioCrossroads spearheaded a collaborative effort among the State of Indiana and related state organizations, under Governor Mitch Daniels' leadership, and Indiana's five independent health information organizations (HIOs) that submitted an application to the federal government for stimulus funding to advance statewide the effective use of health information technology for the delivery of better patient care.

As a part of this application, IHIT was created to serve as a governance and contracting structure for extending health information technology networks to every corner of the state.

In other grant news; The General Electric Foundation (Fairfield, Connecticut) and the GE Corporate Diversity Council reported the award of $1 million in total to four Milwaukee community healthcare centers toward the goal of increasing access to primary care for uninsured and under served populations across the city.

The four Milwaukee medical centers are: MLK Heritage Health Center; Isaac Coggs Heritage Health Center; Chavez Health Center; and Parkway Health Center.

Each of the four health centers will receive $250,000, in two installments throughout the next two years. Milwaukee is the second city to receive grants through the GE Foundation's Developing Health initiative after New York City. The program will eventually extend to 10 cities across the U.S.