Government
National health IT chief named
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 30, 2009
David Blumenthal, MD, is President Obama's choice to be national coordinator for health information technology, the Dept. of Health and Human Services announced March 20.
As national coordinator, Dr. Blumenthal will be charged with leading the implementation of a nationwide interoperable health information technology infrastructure. Significant funding for the initiative was included in the recently enacted $787 billion federal stimulus package.
"As a primary care physician who has used an electronic record to care for patients every day for 10 years, I understand the enormous potential of this technology," he said in a statement.
Dr. Blumenthal most recently served as director of the Institute for Health Policy at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners Healthcare System in Boston and was a senior health adviser to the Obama campaign. He also was a professor of medicine and health policy at Harvard Medical School, where he served as director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement.
"We look forward to working with him to ensure physicians receive the support they need to meaningfully adopt [electronic medical records] that lead to greater efficiency and quality," said American Medical Association Board of Trustees Chair Joseph M. Heyman, MD. "Dr. Blumenthal will play an important leadership role in the coming years as we work to realize the promise of HIT to optimize quality and coordination by establishing interoperability standards, addressing privacy and security, and properly aligning incentives."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/03/30/gvbf0330.htm.
