The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is offering new funding for projects on artificial intelligence and behavioral healthcare. The agency is looking for proposals for evaluating and improving the quality of healthcare data used by AI tools, and projects that speed the use of health IT products in mental healthcare. ONC will award up to $2 million for the two projects in fiscal year 2024. Applications are due July 12.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is offering new money for innovations around AI data quality and technology adoption for behavioral health. In a new special emphasis notice under its ongoing Leading Edge Acceleration Projects in Health IT initiative, ONC says it's offering funding for fiscal year 2024, seeking applications related to two distinct priorities for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: artificial intelligence and behavioral health. Earlier this year, ONC published the HTI-1 final rule, which establishes transparency requirements for AI and other predictive algorithms incorporated into certified health IT products. Meanwhile, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has also recently launched its Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative, which aims to invest more than $20 million of SAMHSA money to advance health IT in behavioral healthcare settings. The new LEAP in Health IT funding is meant to support both those goals, according to ONC, which says it expects to issue one cooperative agreement award of up to $1 million for each area of interest.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced Monday it is setting up grants for two projects on AI and behavioral health. The first will focus on the development of ways to evaluate and improve the quality of healthcare data used by artificial intelligence technology. The second is aimed at accelerating the adoption of health information technology in behavioral health. Grants fall under the organization’s LEAP in Health IT funding, which aims to come up with solutions to well-documented and emerging challenges ONC views roadblocks to interoperable health technology.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), today published a Special Emphasis Notice (SEN) under the Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) in Health Information Technology (Health IT) funding opportunity for fiscal year 2024.

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