Former head of ONC continues to push forward with Open Health Tools

Robert Kolodner, MD, admits to keeping a low profile following his stint as interim National Coordinator for Health IT, a position he left in 2009 after a 31-year government career - three years at ONC, and before that 28 at the Department of Veterans Affairs. As chief informatics officer at VA, he led the development of VistA, the department's open-source electronic health record.

Low profile notwithstanding, Kolodner has been anything but idle. It's just that he prefers "to do and then talk," he says. A new collaboration between Georgia Tech and the VA on health IT innovation has Kolodner talking. The forging of partnerships like this one, which Kolodner was instrumental in achieving, is the focus of this "recovering fed's" new work in health IT.

His primary work has been as part of the team at Open Health Tools, a multinational nonprofit organization whose tagline is: "Improving the world's health and well-being by unleashing health IT innovation." It's what Kolodner is committed to help realize by forging collaborations among diverse groups.