As much of the agency's original HITECH Act funding expires, the ONC will refocus its efforts on key priorities and reshuffle staff into a smaller number of departments.
The change, announced to ONC employees in an email from National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD, was based on input from the ONC's senior leadership and past national coordinators as well as from industry stakeholders.
"This new structure will help us expand our role as convener to further advance new and innovative uses of health IT across the federal government and with the private sector," said Dr. DeSalvo in the email.
The main foci of the ONC will be: fostering health IT interoperability, supporting care transformation and developing a framework to support the use of health data by providers, insurers, researchers and others.
The consolidated departments reflect these new goals:
- Office of Care Transformation (to be led by Kelly Cronin, currently ONC's health reform coordinator)
- Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (to be led by Joy Pritts, the ONC's chief privacy officer)
- Office of the Chief Operating Officer (to be led by Lisa Lewis, currently deputy national coordinator for operations)
- Office of the Chief Scientist (to be led by Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, chief science officer)
- Office of Clinical Quality and Safety (to be led by Judy Murphy, RN, deputy national coordinator for programs and policy)
- Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Analysis (to be led by Seth Pazinski, division director)
- Office of Policy (to be led by Jodi Daniel, director)
- Office of Programs: (to be led by Kim Lynch, currently director of the Office of Provider Adoption Support)
- Office of Public Affairs and Communications (to be led by Nora Super, currently the acting director)
- Office of Standards and Technology (to be led by Steve Posnack, currently the director of the federal policy division)
All of these department leaders will report directly to Dr. DeSalvo and Deputy National Coordinator Jacob Reider, MD.
Several current leaders and departments were notably missing from Dr. DeSalvo's email. They include:
- Amy Helwig, MD, acting chief medical officer and leader of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer
- Michael Furukawa, PhD, director of the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation and Modeling
- Lygeia Ricciardi, the director of the Office of Consumer eHealth
- Lee Stevens, acting director of the Office of Certification
- Claudia Williams, the director of the state health information exchange program
More Articles on the ONC:
26 of the Smartest People in Health IT
Health IT's Effect on Inter-Hospital Competition
List of 2014 Edition Certified Technology Swells to 1,160