After a four-month job search, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has picked its first Director of Health Care Initiatives, according to MobiHealthNews. Although the agency has not officially announced the appointment, the publication said it has confirmed through sources that Matthew Quinn has been chosen for the new FCC position.
Quinn comes to the FCC from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He also served as program management lead for the National Resource Center for Health IT, as lead staff for the Quality Subcommittee of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) and as Co-Chair of the Assistive Technology Subcommittee of the Interagency Committee for Disability Research (ICDR).
Prior to government service, Quinn was the Healthcare Industry Program Manager for analytic data solutions provider Teradata and was responsible for healthcare strategy and partnerships for the company. Before that, he led marketing for Quantros, a patient safety and clinical outcomes improvement software company, managed GE Healthcare's "Six Sigma for Healthcare" clinical outcomes performance improvement consulting services and data analytic products, helped build an early Personal Health Record (PHR) company, and served as an Army Engineer Officer.
Quinn takes the healthcare helm at the FCC as the agency has undertaken several high-profile health initiatives that leverage wireless communications and broadband connectivity. In January, the FCC announced it is making $400 million available to healthcare providers in order to create and expand telemedicine networks nationwide as part of its new Healthcare Connect Fund. In addition, the agency recently revised and modernized its experimental licensing program to help create testbeds designed to advance the development and deployment of wireless technology for healthcare apps.
The search to find Quinn was in direct response to a September 2012 recommendation by the mHealth Task Force that the new position of FCC Director of Health Care Initiatives should provide a "single point of contact for addressing healthcare related barriers and opportunities."
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