News Briefs: Week of Oct. 5-9

This roundup includes the following news briefs:

Nearly $28 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has been allocated to expand the use of health information technology, or health IT, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a Sept. 29 news release. The money will be divided among 27 grantees, including health center-controlled networks and large multisite health centers.

Activities funded by the grants will increase the reach of health care services to low-income and uninsured people through HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, health center program. HRSA-supported health centers treated 17 million patients in 2008, and 40 percent of those patients lacked health insurance. David Blumenthal, M.D., the country's national coordinator for health IT, said in the news release that broad use of health IT can improve quality and efficiency and prevent medical errors in the U.S. health care system.

In a Sept. 30 news release, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of $7.6 million in recovery act funds to help alleviate primary care workforce shortages across the country.

Sebelius said the money -- part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 -- would help place full-time primary care health professionals in shortage areas and would give hundreds of thousands of Americans access to primary care.

Specifically, 18 grantees will split $5.8 million under the State Loan Repayment Program, which provides grants to states to fund loan repayment programs to increase the availability of primary health service providers in health professional shortage areas. Another 45 grantees will divide $1.8 million and use the funds to help recruit new National Health Service Corps clinicians.