Healthcare professionals may benefit from online EHR training

Healthcare professionals may benefit from online EHR training

Healthcare organizations are currently making the switch from paper to electronic health records (EHRs), and employers in the industry are demanding professionals with EHR training. As a result, a number of campus-based and online universities are launching academic programs that are related to this field.

For example, Practice Fusion - an Electronic Health Records (EHR) association - recently partnered with DeVry University to create a real-world training program for the university's Health Information Technology (HIT) students that utilizes the company's web-based EHR system.

"Practice Fusion really surprised me," said DeVry student Aubrey Mattern. "I definitely never expected to have hands-on practice like that with an online course. The video tutorials are also very informative and really help you to understand what this career field is all about."

Healthcare providers will need 50,000 additional information technology (IT)-trained workers to meet meaningful use criteria and get government incentives for implementing EHRs, according to the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT.

By Mark Danson