In 1999, Ray Rogers and Pat Dudley came together to discuss the emergence of electronic medical records in the healthcare industry and the lack of qualified individuals to serve at the interface of healthcare and information technology.   Recognizing that no degree programs existed in the US at the Bachelorette level in Health Care Informatics, the two worked with the Montana University System and the healthcare industry to create the nation’s first undergraduate degree in 2002 in Health Care Informatics at the Associate (AS) and Bachelorette (BS) levels at Montana Tech in Butte.

 

Soon after, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Dudley recognized the opportunity to develop a non-profit corporation dedicated to education, training, research & development, and health information technology.   In 2004, the National Center for Health Care Informatics (NCHCI) was created as a Montana 501(c)(3) corporation.   Mr. Rogers started the organization as its CEO in 2005 and Mr. Dudley joined as its President in 2007.    

 

Over the early years of the NCHCI, the company worked on a number of initiatives from Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to Health Information Exchange (HIE) and evaluating quality and performance in healthcare.    The NCHCI hosted several regional multi-state conferences for the early adoption of EMRs.   

 

From 2007-2009, the NCHCI worked on a significant grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation called Partners Investing in Nursing Future (PIN).   As one of the first grantees nationally, the NCHCI focused on soft-skills training for nursing students studying in all the nursing programs across the system of Higher Education in Montana.   The program successfully demonstrated that providing soft skills training to nursing students increased their retention rates over the first few years of their time as new nurses.   

 

The NCHCI also served as a consultant on several different healthcare IT related projects.

 

In 2007, the NCHCI began to evaluate new opportunities for the future of the company, and Simulation-based Training was identified as the future of healthcare training.  In 2009, the NCHCI began working with the US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in developing mixed-reality simulation training technologies and scenarios for the US Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs).  The NCHCI worked with AFSOC and AFRL for 10 years developing mixed-reality training scenarios and technologies to evaluate the efficacy of using simulation training for PJs.    Over the course of the project, the NCHCI received special recognition for its work with integrated training within an Advanced JTAC Training System (AAJTS) 5-meter dome training environment and developing a large scale mock-up of an Afghan Village in an airplane hangar in Butte, MT.   

 

At the beginning of the AFSOC project, the NCHCI recognized the gap that exists in rural America for simulation-based training for rural healthcare practitioners.  In response to that, the NCHCI began working on the development of the nation’s first independent, non-aligned simulation training center.   

After completing its work with AFSOC, the NCHCI began working toward the development of the Praxis Center, a $35 million, 35,000 s.f. mock hospital and simulation training center to be located in Uptown Butte, Montana.   The NCHCI played a key role in completing all the initial research, business planning, and development for the Praxis Center.    In 2022, the NCHCI was recognized by TechLink as a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) success story for leveraging its initial federal funding into a for-profit training center (Praxis Center).

 

In 2023, the Board of Directors of the NCHCI agreed to change the name of the company to an Assumed Business Name (ABN) of NOVARE.