As expected, the Health and Human Services Department named Robert Kolodner interim national coordinator for health IT last week. Kolodner has been chief health informatics officer at the Veterans Affairs Department's Veterans Health Administration. There he played a key role in the oversight and development of MyHealtheVet, a health portal for veterans to access health information, tools and services via the Internet, and VistA, the VA's generally-lauded electronic health records (EHR) systems.
David Brailer, the first national coordinator for health IT, resigned earlier this year after two years of barnstorming the country to drum up support for health IT. Brailer is still talking up health IT, too (see next item). Brailer will remain vice chairman of the American Health Information Community, a public-private partnership that makes recommendations to HHS on facilitating standards for health IT. Kolodner also is active in AHIC.
For more on Kolodner's appointment:
- read this report