University of the District of Columbia

Program: Public Health Information Technology 4 DC (PHIT4DC)

Contact: Dr. Mashonda Smith <mashonda.smith@udc.edu> and Charletta Washington <charletta.washington@udc.edu>

# of students to be trained: 560 undergraduate, graduate and certificate students

Program Type: New Program

The Public Health Information Technology 4 DC (PHIT4DC) project will optimize the history and legacy of two of Washington’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities to collaborate with the consortium to accomplish the following:

• Develop an interdisciplinary, and culturally responsive curriculum with special focus on certificate and degree programs in public health informatics, pharmacy health information technologies, and data science;
• Develop and implement a cross-institutional infrastructure between the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University that will build a consistent recruitment pipeline from underserved populations who live in under-resourced areas in Washington, DC, specifically Wards 7 and 8;
• Develop equity transfer initiatives to accelerate PHIT training pathways from high school; workforce development and lifelong learning; associate degrees to bachelor’s degrees; and health professional/MPH/graduate degrees in PHIT;
• Develop and implement a robust, PHIT competency-based prior learning assessment program as appropriate for specific curriculum pathways; and
• Develop a sustainable training, internship/job placement infrastructure across consortium partners that will orchestrate a natural pipeline for employment from vested stakeholders in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

This program will provide students with specialized within-degree training, certification training, or short-term fellowship training in PHIT across multiple pathways (AA/AS, Bachelor, MPH, Pharmacy/Health Professional, and Post-graduate fellowships) along the education continuum. PHIT4DC is offered to high school students, community pathways (GEDs), and entry-level incumbent professionals.

Core Partners and consortia members: Howard University (HU), Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) District of Columbia (DC), DC Primary Care Association (DCPCA), Zane Networks LLC (Zane)