Sen. Tom Harkin announced last Friday that Iowa’s Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center will receive $1,044,000 in new technical support assistance to help critical access and rural hospital facilities convert from paper-based medical records to certified electronic health record technology. The new funding is provided under the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Extension Center is located at the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care in West Des Moines. Harkin chairs the Senate appropriations panel that funds health initiatives. Click here to read a related story.