[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignleft size-full wp-image-4848”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“75”,“height”:“75”,“alt”:“Dartmouth Shield”}}]]Dartmouth College Press Release Contact the Office of Public Affairs 603-646-3661 • 603-646-2850 (fax)office.of.public.affairs@dartmouth.edu
Electronic health records (EHRs) promise quality and continuity of medical treatment as a patient moves from one provider setting to another, streamlined record keeping, and overall health care cost containment. But public concerns over privacy and security are creating the need for new technicians with specialized expertise in order to deal with these issues.
Dartmouth and River Valley Community College (RVCC) in Claremont, N.H., will work together to help provide the advanced training needed to produce a local workforce with the skills and knowledge to install, operate, secure, and maintain systems in support of EHR implementation. Dartmouth’s part in this joint effort will be led by the College’s Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), a consortium it manages that is made up of leading universities, national laboratories, and nonprofit institutions dedicated to strengthening U.S. cyber infrastructure.
The collaborative educational project, “Program Development in Cybersecurity with Focus on Business and Healthcare Concepts,” is being funded with $400,000 from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. The project’s goal is to produce well-qualified science and engineering technicians for advanced technological fields, as well as to train effective teachers for these subjects at the undergraduate level.
“Dartmouth has a history of interest and innovation in information technology,” says Dartmouth Vice Provost Martin Wybourne. “We are pleased with the opportunity to share our knowledge and contribute to training the next generation of technical experts in our rural northern New England community.”
River Valley Community College, the lead institution on the project, will use the grant to develop an Information Assurance Certificate and an Information Assurance Associate of Science degree with a specialized focus on the needs of the health care industry. The curriculum will eventually extend to other campuses in the Community College System of New Hampshire.
Steve Budd, president of RVCC, says “This project represents a model of collaboration where knowledge transfer from major research universities becomes cutting edge curricula for educating technicians and technologists.”
Dartmouth will provide support to the ATE project through the expertise of I3P member institutions by integrating content in information assurance and business skills into RVCC’s technician level training.
“The I3P’s breadth of expertise in information technology will be instrumental in the development of this program,” says I3P Executive Director Martha Austin. “In addition, many of our researchers teach at the undergraduate level and can contribute their experience to create an effective program.”
Beyond developing instructional content, Dartmouth will also engage faculty and graduate students in creating case studies based on “real world” scenarios and problems derived from the experiences of health care providers.
