Blumenthal will lead efforts of $19 billion in HITECH Act  funding

David Blumenthal, MD, MPP from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School was named the national coordinator for health information technology. Dr. Blumenthal recently served as a senior health adviser to the Obama presidential campaign.

“I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve President Obama and the American people in the effort to harness the power of health information technology to modernize our health care system,” said Dr. Blumenthal. “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. President Obama has laid out a vision of 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.”

Dr. Blumenthal will lead the efforts of $19 billion in HITECH Act  funding to modernize the health care system with the EHR adoption of health information technology which is estimated to save the federal government $12 billion over the next 10 years.