The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Acting Secretary Eric D. Hargan named three members to the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC).
The committee, created by the 21st Century Cures Act, is charged with making recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology relating to the implementation of national and local health information technology (health IT) infrastructure. These recommendations include, “policies,…standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria” that advance the electronic access, exchange, and use of health information.
The HITAC provides the opportunity for stakeholders and the public to provide direct input to HHS about the implementation and use of health IT. The committee is supported by HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) (@ONC_HealthIT).
Acting Secretary Hargan has appointed the following individuals to the HITAC:
- Leslie Lenert, M.D., Chief Research Information Officer, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (Public Health Appointment)
- Clem J. McDonald, M.D., Director, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, Bethesda, MD (HHS Representative Appointment)
- Robert Wah, M.D., Global Chief Medical Officer, DXC Technology, McLean, VA (At-large Appointment)
The HHS-appointed members join 15 Government Accountability Office-appointed members who will serve for one-, two-, or three-year terms:
- Michael Adcock, Executive Director of the Center for Telehealth at the University of Mississippi Medical Center
- Christina Caraballo, Director of Healthcare Transformation at Get Real Health
- Tina Esposito, Vice President of Information and Technology Innovation at Advocate Health Care
- Brad Gescheider, Senior Director of Provider and Payer Solutions at PatientsLikeMe
- John Kansky, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Indiana Health Information Exchange
- Kensaku Kawamoto, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, University of Utah Health, and Assistant Professor, University of Utah Department of Biomedical Informatics
- Denni McColm, Chief Information Officer at Citizens Memorial Healthcare
- Brett Oliver, Chief Medical Information Officer for Baptist Health
- Terrence O’Malley, Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Nursing and Therapy Center North End
- Carolyn Petersen, patient advocate and Senior Editor for Mayo Clinic’s health information website
- Raj Ratwani, Acting Center Director and Scientific Director of the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare within MedStar Health, and Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine
- Sasha TerMaat, Director at Epic
- Sheryl Turney, Senior Director of All-Payer Claims Database Analytics and Data Policy and Administration at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Andrew Truscott, Managing Director for Health and Public Service at Accenture
- Denise Webb, Chief Information Officer of Marshfield Clinic Health System and Chief Executive Officer of Marshfield Clinic Information Services, Inc
In addition, six of eight appointments have been made by Congressional leaders:
- Cynthia Fisher, Founder and Managing Director, WaterRev, LLC
- Dr. Anil Jin, Vice President and Chief Health Informatics Officer, IBM Watson Health
- Dr. Steven Lane, Clinical Informatics Director for Privacy, Health Information Security & Interoperability, Sutter Health
- Arien Malec, Vice President for the Data Platform Solution Line, RelayHealth
- Steven Ready, System Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Norton Healthcare
- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO, NantWorks
Learn more about the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee on HealthIT.gov.