Program of Assistance for University-Based Training

The final cohort eligible to receive the tuition subsidy was admitted in April 2012.

The 2009 Stimulus Package (ARRA or HITECH)'s goals are to achieve a high level of adoption of EHR and associated information technologies and to improve and transform American health. The key to achieving these goals is a select cadre of workers who must fill a variety of roles:

  • Providing overall clinical leadership
  • Providing public health leadership
  • Bridging this leadership with front-line implementation
  • Applying informatics principles within subdomains, such as epidemiology and health services research
  • Specialized healthcare/public-health oriented programming and software development
  • Health IT research and development (more details)

Johns Hopkins University is ideally suited to provide training in these various roles for many reasons. The existing curriculum already uses the software-development life cycle as the underlying theme of its core curriculum. In 2004, DHSI received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Fellowship grant to provide informatics training in public health, and has recently partnered with the Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) in assembling a national curriculum in public health informatics, rated highly by CDC. The Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH) has recently approved a Public Health Informatics post-Baccalaureate Certificate, the School of Medicine (SOM) has approved a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Clinical Informatics, and the School of Nursing has approved the post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Applied Health Informatics.

While delivered through separate schools and while aimed at different goals, the three programs work together in terms of curriculum (students take several courses together), in terms of material, and in terms of activities---students in different programs working together models the team efforts required to be effective in health IT and informatics.

UBT Role Refinement-

Program Links and Admission Requirements

MD, RN, DO, DDS…or any other terminal clinical degree. Preferably with 3 years’ experience. For information-science professionals, MS, MLS or BS with 5 year's professional experience.
MPH, MHS, PhD, ScD, DrPH, or any other terminal public health degree. Preferably with 3 years’ experience. Or, clinical background with public=health practice responsibility for 3 years or more.
MD, RN, DO, or any other terminal clinical degree. 
Terminal degree (Master's or doctorate) in a relevant area of healthcare or, for those applicants holding a bachelor's degree with less than 5 years of relevant work experience in healthcare should also submit GRE scores with their application.
Application for ONC Funding to download, print and complete the paper application for consideration for the subsidy and return via mail. 
  • BA or BS plus a satisfactory GRE score, or
  • BA or BS, who have a minimum of five years professional experience in a relevant field.
  • Applicants holding the MA, MLS, MD or PhD need meet no further requirements.

Relevant areas of experience include public health, medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, nursing, ancillary therapies, librarianship, biomedical science and computer and information science.