By: Susan Sitarchuk, Healthcare Executive

While the majority of Health Facilities CIOs and Executives are scrambling to get information on accredited EMR systems and to get a handle on what is truly defined as “Meaningful Use” there exists another population of Healthcare Executives who are actually seeing the money. Who are these lucky people? These folks are the people who struggled endlessly prior to February 2009 and ARRA to get government sponsored funds: the Grant Department of Health Facilities and Teaching Hospitals.

In the old days, prior to February 2009, the grant writers would have to jump through large hoops to secure funding for the clinical studies and research that is so vital to healthcare. They were in charge of putting together volumes of documentation that were sent to the governing bodies that dole out federal grant monies. This process could take months to acquire all of the correct documentation to secure the most funding and while compiling all of the information needed, the health facilities may not have received any of the intended monies at the end of this road because the funding had run dry.

Well times have changed. These folks are now able to more easily write a grant request and go after the money made available by ARRA. Here is the nice part; they are actually getting the funding very quickly. There is a sum of grant money that was made available by the US government under the ARRA and each month the government website is updated with new grants. Through ARRA states have allotted grant money for particular research and studies.

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has received more than $30 million in research funding from ARRA, awards that fund more than 100 studies in gene therapy, robotics, public education, neurological disorders, tobacco’s effect on health, and more. One such award is a $500,000 NSF grant to continue research into haptography, the science of capturing and recreating the feel of real surfaces. Not only does the field appeal to young scientists and encourages engineering careers, but the applications are widespread and include robotics assisted surgery, medical training and simulation, interactive museum exhibits, online shopping, and stroke rehabilitation. Other grants that UPenn has been awarded enable the purchase of high end instrumentation equipment to be used for biomedical research. Also, grants were awarded to supplemental research into the genome and for upgrades to core facilities to support biomedical and/or behavioral research.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; more funds are being released on a daily basis. Due to ARRA, 2010 should continue to deliver positive growth in the research arena. Healthcare facilities need to get organized and go after these funds. HIT departments must, regularly, pursue federally funded grant money as well as the monies that they will be eligible for when they have an accredited EMR system and can prove “meaningful use” of that product. With more money available for research grants and improvements in IT, the economy and our health have a better future.