Regional Extension Center

Recognizing the enormity of the effort to establish the use of EHR in medical practices and to accelerate the adoption of EHR, the authors of the HITECH Act authorized and funded the creation of a health information technology extension program. That program created a national Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC) and regional extension centers (RECs). The RECs are located across the country and play a critical role in advancing the use of EHR systems. The goal of the REC is to provide assistance to some 100,000 healthcare providers in their efforts to establish and meaningfully use EHR in their practices.