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.
Monday, March 23, 2009