ONC expansion adds Chief Medical Officer, Office of Consumer eHealth

Clinical initiatives and consumer engagement are at the forefront of the latest expansion within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The organization created two new offices--the Office of the Chief Medical Officer and the Office of Consumer eHealth--according to ONC head Farzad Mostashari's Health IT Buzz blog post this week. The Office of the Chief Medical Officer will deal with any activities that have clinical implications, which include safety implementations, Meaningful Use policy development and development of quality metrics, Mostashari said. The Office of Consumer eHealth, has been spun off from the Office of Policy and Planning, and will focus on activities such as patient-focused challenges. The changes, according to Mostashari, will help ONC keep its "'eyes on the prize" of better, safer healthcare through health IT." Post