The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has announced 15 appointments to the new Health Information Technology Advisory Committee established by the 21st Century Cures Act.
The act established the HIT Advisory Committee and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for appointing at least 14 of the members. In addition to the Comptroller General’s appointments, the Act specifies that 11 members are appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Majority and Minority leaders of the Senate, and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. Applications for the HHS appointments on the committee will be accepted until noon (EST) on August 4, 2017.
The new HITAC replaces the Health IT Policy and Standards committees of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and will provide guidance on policies, standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria relating to the implementation of a health information technology infrastructure that advances the electronic access, exchange, and use of health information.
Here are brief biographies of the appointees:
Michael Adcock, MS, RN, FACHE, is Executive Director of the Center for Telehealth at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, which delivers telehealth services across Mississippi. He works to give telehealth providers access to patients’ medical records and on integrating telehealth services into these records.
Christina Caraballo, MBA, is Director of Healthcare Transformation at Get Real Health, a health information technology development company in Rockville, Md., where she develops and implements patient engagement technology solutions and product certification for participation in federal programs.
Tina Esposito, MBA, RHIA, FACHE, is the Vice President of Information and Technology Innovation at Advocate Health Care, a hospital network in Illinois.
Brad Gescheider, MBA, is Senior Director of Provider and Payer Solutions at PatientsLikeMe, a platform where patients can share experiences about their health conditions and connect with others who have similar conditions.
John Kansky, MBA, MSE, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, where he is responsible for planning, operations, and financial management.
Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD, MHS, is Associate Chief Medical Information Officer, University of Utah Health, and Assistant Professor, University of Utah Department of Biomedical Informatics. He conducts research to develop standards-based, interoperable applications and software services to improve health care. He is also a co-chair of the HL7 Clinical Decision Support Work Group, and he founded OpenCDS, a multi-institutional initiative to enable advanced, standards-based, and open-source clinical decision support and electronic clinical quality measurement.
Denni McColm, MBA, is the Chief Information Officer at Citizens Memorial Healthcare, a health care network based in Bolivar, Missouri, that includes primary care, acute care, long-term care, home health, and hospice facilities.
Brett Oliver, MD, is the Chief Medical Information Officer for Baptist Health, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and a practicing part-time family physician with Baptist Family Physicians of Scott County.
Terrence O’Malley, MD, is a geriatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Nursing and Therapy Center North End with experience providing care to patients with complex medical needs. He is also an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
Carolyn Petersen, MBI, MS, has served as an advocate for patients in various roles since 2002, and is currently Senior Editor for Mayo Clinic’s health information website. Ms. Petersen has served as a patient stakeholder reviewer for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a patient advocate for the National Cancer Institute, and a consumer representative for an advisory panel at the Food and Drug Administration.
Raj Ratwani, MA, PhD, is Acting Center Director and Scientific Director of the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare within MedStar Health, and Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He conducts research on the usability, safety, and interoperability of health information technology, including ways that software is designed, implemented, and used in health care systems.
Sasha TerMaat is a Director at Epic, a health care software company based in Verona, Wisconsin, where she oversees regulatory and quality reporting activities, including implementation of technical standards and software certification.
Andrew Truscott is a Managing Director for Health and Public Service at Accenture and resides in Houston, Texas. His role includes responsibility for electronic health information management, including appropriate information technology strategy, security, digital architecture, and other related issues. Mr. Truscott previously served within the United Kingdom’s National Health Service as the Information Governance Director for the National Programme for Information Technology.
Sheryl Turney, MEd, is Senior Director of All-Payer Claims Database Analytics and Data Policy and Administration at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and resides in Aliso Viejo, California.
Denise Webb, MA, is Chief Information Officer of Marshfield Clinic Health System and Chief Executive Officer of Marshfield Clinic Information Services, Inc., in Marshfield, Wisconsin. She previously held multiple positions in Wisconsin state government, including as the statewide coordinator for health information technology.
Newly appointed members will serve for one-, two-, or three-year terms. All members may be reappointed for subsequent three-year terms. Members appointed for one-year terms are Michael Adcock, Terrence O’Malley, Carolyn Petersen, Sasha TerMaat, and Andrew Truscott. Members appointed for two-year terms are John Kansky, Denni McColm, Brett Oliver, Raj Ratwani, and Denise Webb. Members appointed for three-year terms are Christina Caraballo, Tina Esposito, Brad Gescheider, Kensaku Kawamoto, and Sheryl Turney.
