Dr. David Blumenthal to Leave ONC This Spring

Tags: David Blumenthal | ONC | resignation

The National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal, MD, has announced he will be stepping down from his position to return to his role as professor and researcher at Harvard University, according to an InformationWeek news report.

Dr. Blumenthal told his staff in a memo that he had always planned to serve as national coordinator for health IT for just two years when he accepted the position in March 2009, just one month after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's HITECH Act was signed into law by President Obama.

Ever since he took the helm at ONC, Dr. David Blumenthal has worked with ONC staff and other government leads to create the meaningful use program, under which eligible healthcare providers can receive incentive payments for demonstrating meaningful use of health IT. The program, which begins this year, will award approximately $27 billion in payments to providers.

Dr. Blumenthal's announcement comes at a critical time when the HITECH Act is coming under increased scrutiny by Republicans who are attempting to repeal the program to cut government spending. However, the Republican move to repeal HITECH is not expected to go beyond the Democrat-majority Senate or President Obama.

Read the news report about Dr. David Blumenthal's resignation.

Read other coverage about Dr. David Blumenthal:

- Dr. David Blumenthal: Imaging Could Be Part of Meaningful Use

- National Health IT Coordinator Details 2010 Advancements in Health Technology

- Health IT coordinator Blumenthal Pushes Back Vote on NHIN Rules

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