Deven McGraw heads to OCR as deputy director for health information privacy

Deven McGraw, who was an integral part of the Health IT Policy Committee's Privacy and Security Workgroup, will step into a new role at the Health and Human Service Department's Office for Civil rights as the deputy director for health information privacy.

McGraw will take over the role on June 29, according to an announcement by OCR.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in 2009 tapped McGraw to chair the HPrivacy and Security Workgroup. McGraw was also co-chair of the committee's Tiger Team.

As part of the Tiger Team, she worked on recommendations to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT about various health IT initiatives, including for Meaningful Use Stage 2, on health information exchange and on data segmentation.

Most recently, the privacy and security workgroup began work on recommendations for dealing with big data. Members discussed the challenges presented both for HIPAA-covered entities and the marketplace not covered by HIPAA. During those talks, McGraw noted that consumers don't have clearly defined rights for accessing information collected about them by organizations not covered by HIPAA.

In her new role, McGraw will lead OCR's policy, enforcement and outreach efforts on HIPAA; as well as head the office's work on "presidential and departmental priorities on health privacy and security," the announcement says. 

To learn more:
- here's the announcement