The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has tapped the head of Harvard Medical School to oversee President Barack Obama's health IT plans.
HHS announced Friday that the Obama administration had chosen David Blumenthal, a Harvard Medical School professor, to become the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Blumenthal's mission is to lead the transition to an interoperable health IT infrastructure, as outlined in the stimulus package.
The stimulus plan contains nearly $20 billion for health IT, with a goal of adopting an interoperable system by 2014. The federal government has estimated that it could cut health care costs by $12 billion over 10 years with the modernization.
Blumenthal has practiced medicine and served as director of the Institute for Health Policy at The Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was also Samuel O. Thier professor of medicine and professor of health care policy, as well as director of the interfaculty program for health systems improvement, at Harvard Medical School.
Before that, he was SVP at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He served as executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Management and as a lecturer on Public...
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