HIT ConsultantHHS Announces Funding Opportunity to Improve AI-Powered Healthcare & Behavioral Health IT

New HHS funding opportunity focuses on enhancing AI in healthcare and accelerating health IT adoption in behavioral health settings, aligning with recent transparency and collaboration initiatives.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a funding initiative through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare and advancing health IT adoption in behavioral health settings. The Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health Information Technology for fiscal year 2024 will focus on developing scalable methods to enhance electronic health record (EHR) data quality for AI applications and accelerating the integration of health IT in behavioral health care to improve coordination and outcomes.

Key Points:

• Funding Agency and Initiative:
  • The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
  • Part of the Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health Information Technology (Health IT) funding for fiscal year 2024.
• Focus Areas:
  • Enhancing AI in Healthcare:
    • Development of methods to evaluate and improve the quality of healthcare data used by AI tools.
    • Emphasis on creating scalable approaches to assess and enhance EHR data.
  • Boosting Behavioral Health IT:
    • Accelerating the adoption of health IT in behavioral health settings.
    • Designing, developing, and piloting user-friendly health IT solutions.
    • Improving care coordination between behavioral health and traditional healthcare settings.
• Alignment with Recent Initiatives:
  • Builds upon ONC Health IT Certification Program’s new transparency requirements for AI and predictive algorithms in certified health IT.
  • Collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on the Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative.
  • The initiative includes a $20 million investment to advance health IT in behavioral health settings.
• Funding and Application Details:
  • Up to $1 million awarded for each focus area, totaling $2 million.
  • Application details are available on Grants.gov under NAP-AX-22-001.

“These two areas of interest are a natural extension of ONC’s work. We look forward to receiving innovative applications and seeing the impacts generated by selected awardees.”
– Steve Posnack, Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

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