Title 42The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-73

§17912 Research and development programs

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 156— - HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - TESTING OF HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY › § 17912

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Director of NIST, working with the Director of the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies, must set up a competitive, merit-reviewed grant program to help colleges or college-led groups (which can include nonprofits and federal labs) create multidisciplinary Centers for Health Care Information Enterprise Integration. These centers must do new, cross-discipline research to solve systems problems in health care and to develop and use health information technologies. Research may cover things like human–computer interfaces, voice recognition, software that helps systems work together and stay dependable, ways to measure how IT affects care quality and productivity, enterprise management, security and integrity, and tools to reduce medical errors. Grant applications must describe the research, who will take part, how different fields will work together, plans to share results, and how the center will train people. The Networking and Information Technology R&D Program under section 5511 of title 15 must include federal health IT research.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §17912

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in consultation with the Director of the National Science Foundation and other appropriate Federal agencies, shall establish a program of assistance to institutions of higher education (or consortia thereof which may include nonprofit entities and Federal Government laboratories) to establish multidisciplinary Centers for Health Care Information Enterprise Integration.
(2)Grants shall be awarded under this subsection on a merit-reviewed, competitive basis.
(3)The purposes of the Centers described in paragraph (1) shall be—
(A)to generate innovative approaches to health care information enterprise integration by conducting cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research on the systems challenges to health care delivery; and
(B)the development and use of health information technologies and other complementary fields.
(4)Research areas may include—
(A)interfaces between human information and communications technology systems;
(B)voice-recognition systems;
(C)software that improves interoperability and connectivity among health information systems;
(D)software dependability in systems critical to health care delivery;
(E)measurement of the impact of information technologies on the quality and productivity of health care;
(F)health information enterprise management;
(G)health information technology security and integrity; and
(H)relevant health information technology to reduce medical errors.
(5)An institution of higher education (or a consortium thereof) seeking funding under this subsection shall submit an application to the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Director may require. The application shall include, at a minimum, a description of—
(A)the research projects that will be undertaken by the Center established pursuant to assistance under paragraph (1) and the respective contributions of the participating entities;
(B)how the Center will promote active collaboration among scientists and engineers from different disciplines, such as information technology, biologic sciences, management, social sciences, and other appropriate disciplines;
(C)technology transfer activities to demonstrate and diffuse the research results, technologies, and knowledge; and
(D)how the Center will contribute to the education and training of researchers and other professionals in fields relevant to health information enterprise integration.
(b)The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program established by section 5511 of title 15 shall include Federal research and development programs related to health information technology.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2017—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 114–329 substituted “Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program” for “National High-Performance Computing Program”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 17912

Title 42The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73