Reference Directory: Grant Sources for Health Technology

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 9, 2007 -- Published in a searchable electronic format in five regional volumes, the Health IT Grant Resource Directory is the first of its kind. Initially undertaken as a reference tool for Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), the Directory has been enriched with resources for hospitals, clinics, rural healthcare, as well as health IT software vendors who assist healthcare providers in fund development.

Direct funding of health IT through philanthropy is a relatively new activity. Convincing evidence in recent years of the lifesaving successes of systems such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and related technologies has been mounting. Telehealth projects to bring expertise (and reduce costs) for the chronically ill in rural communities, technologies enabling access to care for underserved populations, RHIOs and HIEs have brought IT out of the hospital basement and made it a public priority.

Along with detailed contact information on 4,000 funders, the “HIT GRD” provides grant application deadline information, approach recommendations and other information where available, including live links to funders’ online content, contact names, telephone numbers and email addresses. Also included are health IT funding strategies, including an methodologies employed by the nonprofit sector for similar capital development projects. To help applicants make the case for health IT funding, the HIT GRD offers examples and live links to source materials.

The five regionally-focused volumes organize grantmakers into New England, Middle Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, and West/Southwest regions of the United States. Resources were found in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, ranging from a handful to more than 500 per state. In addition to local, statewide and regional funders, more than 350 nationally-focused grantmakers are included. Listings emphasize private funding resources, rather than the generally well-known Federal funding programs.

Funder listings and other resources were compiled over a two-year period, selecting potential funding sources based on past funding patterns, magnitude of giving, and data collected from the tax records of thousands of grantmakers, incorporating a profiling technique that made it possible to identify potential resources for this new area of philanthropy where very little explicit health IT grant history exists.

The Health IT Grant Resource Directory was researched and edited by analysts at Healthcare IT Transition Group, publishers of studies in the health information technology field (Sustainable RHIO Funding and the Emerging Business Model, Funding RHIO Startup and Financing for Life, and others), and producers of the Flash Point Health IT educational series (Getting ROI from Health IT, The Health IT Grant Search, Building the Case for RHIO, and others). The HIT GRD may be obtained at http://hittransition.com/funding07.

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