Blumenthal Named HIT Czar
 
Health and Human Services has announced the selection of David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, as the Obama administration’s choice for National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. As the national coordinator, Blumenthal will lead the implementation of a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected HIT infrastructure as called for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“President Obama believes we must take serious steps to modernize our healthcare system in order to improve the health of all Americans, bring down costs, and ensure sustained long-term economic growth. Health information technology is a critical part of the president’s strategy to reform our healthcare system and as one of the nation’s leading health information technology experts, Dr. Blumenthal has the experience and the vision to help make this effort a reality,” says HHS spokeswoman Jenny Backus. “As a practicing physician and a leading scholar on health information technology, Dr. Blumenthal is uniquely qualified to help America’s doctors, nurses, hospitals, and patients reap the benefits of a modernized health system. Dr. Blumenthal shares President Obama’s commitment to investing in a health IT infrastructure that will protect patient privacy, and improve both quality and efficiency in our nation’s healthcare system.”

Blumenthal most recently served as a physician and director of the Institute for Health Policy at The Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston. He was also Samuel O. Thier professor of medicine and professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School. There, he also served as director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement. Prior to that, he was senior vice president at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served as executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Management and as a lecturer on public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

During the late 1970s, Blumenthal worked on Sen Edward Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. More recently, Blumenthal served as a senior health adviser to the Obama for America campaign. He has extensively researched the dissemination of HIT, quality management in healthcare, the determinants of physician behavior, access to health services, and the extent and consequences of academic-industrial relationships in the health sciences.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a $19.5 billion investment in HIT, which will reportedly save money, improve quality of care for patients, and make our healthcare system more efficient. Blumenthal will lead the effort at HHS to modernize the healthcare system by catalyzing the adoption of interoperable HIT by 2014 thereby reducing health costs for the federal government by an estimated $12 billion over 10 years.
 
Source: Health and Human Services

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