Jon White, who in October was named acting chief medical officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, on Monday was announced as the agency's acting deputy national coordinator as it searches for a replacement for the recently departed Jacob Reider.
In an email to ONC staff obtained by FierceHealthIT, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo said that White--who is on detail from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality--will serve in both ONC roles simultaneously. At AHRQ, White served as director of the Division of Health IT; according to his ONC bio, he continues to provide consultation on select agency initiatives.
Reider, who had worked at ONC since September 2011, left the agency late last month.
"[White's] portfolio has encompassed hundreds of projects in 48 states, including research, demonstration and implementation projects on a wide variety of health IT programs and issues," DeSalvo said in her email. She added that his responsibilities will include "supporting the National Coordinator in the critically important day-to-day work of ONC, management of senior staff and executive oversight for the activities of all ONC offices."
White, a board-certified family physician, also serves as ONC's interim lead for the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety in place of Judy Murphy, who departed the agency in mid-October to join IBM's Healthcare Global Business Services.
In addition to looking for replacements for Reider and Murphy, the latter of whom also served as ONC's chief nursing officer, the agency is working to fill a number of other recent leadership vacancies. Doug Fridsma, former chief scientist at ONC, joined the American Medical Informatics Association as president and CEO last month, while Lygeia Ricciardi, who had served as director of the Office of Consumer eHealth at ONC since 2012, left the agency in July.