New head of DOD health affairs takes reins

Nancy Ferris | Government Health IT | April 18, 2007

The Department of Defense has a new assistant secretary for health affairs who supports developing systems for e-health records, now that the Senate has confirmed President Bush's nominee, Dr. S. Ward Casscells.

Casscells, a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center and director of clinical research at the Texas Heart Institute, replaces Dr. William Winkenwerder, who returned to the private sector.

Casscells is a cardiologist who joined the Army at age 53 and was deployed to Iraq for three months. Commissioned as a colonel in the Army Reserve, he headed the Army's efforts to prepare for a possible pandemic of avian flu.