Jobs site among HHSinnovates winners

An online job listing service that aims to fill healthcare positions in underserved communities was one of several recent initiatives developed by HHS employees that the department recognized in Washington on Monday.

The National Health Service Corps Jobs Center, an online employment site, has succeeded in filling "thousands" of vacant healthcare positions since it was launched, said HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr during a department innovation award ceremony. The healthcare jobs initiative was one of three endeavors that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius selected as a winner in the fifth round of the HHSinnovates program, which celebrates initiatives developed by HHS employees.

"Lots of people want to do the right thing, and making it easier for them to do the right thing is critically important," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the award ceremony about the online jobs board.

The semiannual innovations awards also recognized a newly developed real-time coal-dust exposure device and an initiative to provide public online access to the genetic code sequences of 100,000 food-borne pathogens. The coal-dust initiative received the most votes from the public in the first HHSinnovates "People's Choice" contest.