Obama Campaign Adviser Named to HHS IT Post

HHS announced Friday that Dr. David Blumenthal, a former
Harvard Medical School
professor who has advised Sen. Edward Kennedy, is the Obama
administration’s choice as National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology. In the position, Blumenthal will lead
the orchestration of a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected
health information technology infrastructure as called for in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 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. In the late 1970s, he worked on
Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Health and
Scientific Research, and more recently served as a senior health
adviser to the Obama for America campaign. Blumenthal will play a
key role in determining how to spend the $19.5 billion devoted to
health information technology in the recently passed economic
stimulus package.