With the announcement that he will return to Harvard University in the spring, Dr. David Blumenthal, national health IT coordinator, will leave a lasting mark on the unfolding transformation of U.S. healthcare providers moving from paper to digital records and, ultimately, to improved quality and better outcomes, according to health IT observers.
Blumenthal had planned to stay two years when President Obama named him to be national coordinator in March 2009, according to a memo he sent to his staff Feb. 3.
Descriptions of his leadership style focus on his steady, thoughtful and balanced approach to bringing various forces together, some with very disparate agendas, to shape what would become the meaningful use and standards and certifications rules.
He has been able to steer the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT through heady times, as the HITECH Act offered the prospect of Medicare and Medicaid providing $27 billion in incentive payments over several years for physicians and hospitals to become meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs), as well as $2 billion for ONC to develop a framework for that.
While HITECH presented a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity to make health IT adoption finally take root, Blumenthal was able to "skillfully use the levers in HITECH" to bring together leaders of many difference healthcare organizations to craft a framework for moving the country forward toward health IT adoption and its meaningful use, said Dr. Paul Tang, chief medical information officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
"And he was able to make effective use of their recommendations," he said.
As vice chair of the advisory Health IT Policy Committee, Tang has worked very closely with Blumenthal, who is the committee chair.
Before his leadership role as national coordinator for health IT, Blumenthal served as a physician and director of the Institute for Health Policy at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston. He was also a medical and health policy professor at Harvard, where he directed the Center for Health Policy and Management.
Blumenthal has been able to assemble the foundation for establishing an interoperable healthcare system, according to HIMSS, a not-for-profit organization that promotes healthcare improvement through health IT and management systems. And he has understood that the ongoing healthcare IT transformation must not leave any community behind.
"Despite pressure from many sides, he has been able to pull resources from across the government and the nation, stick to an extremely aggressive schedule set by law, and begin putting the critical pieces into place to establish a safer and more efficient healthcare system in the U.S.," said Stephen Lieber, HIMSS president and CEO.
The National eHealth Collaborative, a public-private partnership that advocates for secure and interoperable nationwide health information exchange, said Blumenthal tackled some of the healthcare industry's most difficult policy, technology and workflow issues with a "balanced, thoughtful, and solution-oriented approach," which has resulted in significant progress toward adoption and use of EHRs and health information exchange.
"As a strategic and effective leader, he has also encouraged innovation and collaboration between government and the private sector," said Kate Berry, CEO of the National eHealth Collaborative.
The Health and Human Services Department will conduct a national search to find the right successor for this leadership position, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
After his departure, his ONC team will continue to build on their mission. Dr. Farzad Mostashari is deputy national coordinator for programs and policy. Before coming to ONC, he served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as assistant commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he led the adoption of health IT for preventive care by 1,500 providers in underserved communities.
In the last two years, the U.S. has "finally turned the corner" in the critically important journey to the use of health IT, Sebelius said.
"Under the leadership of David Blumenthal and his entire team at ONC, we have made significant strides in the implementation of EHRs," she said.
