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The growing need for health informatics education programs in Maine and the 91ֱ����Ƶ's initiative to fill that need was the topic of an article in Mainebiz on February 23, 2015.

Health informatics is defined in the article as “the development, analysis and distribution of health information to help patients.” An example of a health informatics project is MaineHealth's adoption two years ago of a single patient record system, allowing health professionals across different practices and hospitals to access a patient's records from a single file.

The article discusses a new project undertaken by MaineHealth, local government officials, higher education institutions, including UNE, and other stakeholders to assess Maine's health informatics field and how to foster its growth. As part of the project, Growing Portland, an organization founded by the Portland Regional Chamber and the city of Portland, has launched the “Health Informatics Assessment Project.”

According to the article, 91ֱ����Ƶcoincidentally began looking into developing a health informatics program at the same time the Growing Portland initiative was created. John Spritz, manager of Growing Portland, referred to the 91ֱ����Ƶhealth informatics program, scheduled to launch in the fall, as “the most exciting higher education opportunity occurring in southern Maine.”

Ellen Beaulieu, Ed.D., vice president for Academic Affairs, who was interviewed for the article, noted that some of the Growing Portland initiative's other stakeholders, such as IT consulting and outsourcing firm Winxnet and health care provider InterMed, plan to enroll their employees in the program and are helping to develop the curriculum. She explained that instead of the employer training their employees for a health informatics position, the employees will be learning with supervision and guidance from 91ֱ����Ƶbut will be “learning on the job in project-based teams.”

UNE's health informatics program is being supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.