Obama Names Harvard Physician Blumenthal As National Coordinator For Health IT

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice;  Medical Practice Management
Article Date: 24 Mar 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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HHS on Friday announced that President Obama has appointed David Blumenthal, director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, as the national coordinator for health information technology, the AP/Washington Post reports (AP/Washington Post, 3/20). Blumenthal is a practicing physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also served as a senior health policy adviser to President Obama during the presidential campaign (Health Data Management, 3/20). As the nation's health IT chief, Blumenthal will play a significant role in determining how to spend the $2 billion allocated for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in the federal stimulus package, which made the position of the national coordinator for health IT permanent and expanded the coordinator's responsibilities. Blumenthal also will help develop rules and policies to implement other health IT provisions in the stimulus package, such as Medicare and Medicaid health IT incentive programs; enhanced privacy and security requirements; and development of a nationwide health information network. Blumenthal said, "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 added, "President Obama has laid out a vision for health reform that is both inspiring and long overdue. We cannot make that vision a reality without the help of our most advanced computer technology" (Goedert, Healthcare IT News, 3/20).

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