Four new members have been appointed to the influential National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.

The latest additions to the 18-member advisory committee are:

• Leslie Pickering Francis, a law professor and chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Utah.
  
• Dr. Larry Green, a physician with the University of Colorado Health Science Center.
  
• Garland Land, executive director of the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems.
  
• Dr. Marc Overhage, president and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange.

They replace Dr. Stanley Huff, Robert Hungate and A. Russell Localio, whose four-year terms expired. John Paul Houston, a vice president of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was reappointed at the conclusion of his term.

One vacancy on NCVHS remains to be filled by the U.S. Senate. Another member is appointed by the House, and the rest are appointed by the HHS secretary.

The committee, chaired by Dr. Simon Cohn of Kaiser Permanente, advises HHS on matters of health data, statistics and national health information policy, including standards, regulations and privacy protections.