A Medical Device Daily

Altarum Institute (Ann Arbor, Michigan) reported that it has been awarded a grant of $19,619,990 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve as the lead agent in establishing Michigan's health information technology regional extension center, the Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption (M-CEITA, www.mceita.org).

The grant will be administered through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and managed and sponsored by Altarum. It is expected to create more than 100 new jobs in Michigan.

M-CEITA's collective mission is "to provide education, outreach, and technical assistance to improve the quality and value of" healthcare delivery in Michigan. As Michigan's health information technology regional extension center, M-CEITA will offer electronic health record adoption assistance services to the nearly 17,000 primary care providers in Michigan. M-CEITA will also help Michigan providers maximize their share of over $700 million in federal incentives available to decrease financial barriers to HIT adoption.

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 established the health information technology regional extension center program as part of an overall initiative to modernize health practices, adopt and use technology, share critical patient information, and meaningfully use HIT.

In other grants news:

• BioOhio (Columbus) and partners have been awarded a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration to implement the Ohio Bioscience Industry Workforce Preparedness project.

The three-year project will provide training to 660 displaced or underemployed workers in declining industries to become better equipped for careers in Ohio's growing biomedical industry. In addition, 40 incumbent workers will receive more advanced training to move into higher-level jobs, creating new entry-level job opportunities for unemployed adults.

Project activity will focus on four regions in Ohio, which include five mixed urban/suburban metropolitan areas: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.

In each region, consortium colleges will serve as the regional project leaders, heading up a team of employers, workforce agencies, labor groups, and community partners. CAEL (The Council for Adult & Experiential Learning), a national non-profit organization focused on workforce development and adult learning, will serve a technical assistance role.

Each regional team, with guidance from BioOhio, will refine recruitment, assessment, support, placement and retention strategies to ensure trainee success. Most of the training within the project will provide participants with an industry-recognized credential. Participants who enroll in training activities that don't result in a credential will receive course credits.

Eleven biomedical employers have formally committed to partnering on the project, with additions possible in the coming months.

• San Diego State University, Biocom (San Diego), San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the Southern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College (San Diego) reported the award of a three-year, $4.95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at assisting the economic growth of the San Diego region's life sciences industry.

The Biotechnology Readiness, Immersion, Certification and Degrees for Gainful Employment (BRIDGE) project will provide education, training, and placement services to more than 1,000 veterans, incumbent workers and dislocated and unemployed workers within the San Diego region.

The Bridge project is a partnership linking training and higher education with employment opportunities that address the regional and statewide workforce needs of the life sciences industry. The project will focus on the critical need for clinical laboratory scientists, medical laboratory technicians, medical physicists, and professional scientists.

SDSU and Miramar College will provide certificate, degree, and Professional Science Master's programs. The Biocom Institute's Life Science Immersion Program will provide training needed for successful biotechnology careers, and the BioCollaborative, created in cooperation with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will provide an online resource to facilitate seamless transition from higher education to careers in the life sciences industry.

All of these courses are part of a pipeline that can be used to educate, recruit, train and place workers of all levels, from high school students to people with graduate degrees and military veterans.

The grant is part of more than $225 million in federal stimulus funding awarded by the Department of Labor to create jobs in healthcare and high growth industries under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. There were 55 grants awarded in this round of funding. The Bridge Project is one of four biotechnology programs to receive funding.

Fifteen industry members wrote letters of support for this grant application. As partners, these companies are committed to providing internships, on-the-job training, apprenticeships and employment.

The program will be administered jointly through the San Diego State University College of Sciences and College of Extended Studies.