DeSalvo Delivers First Remarks To Health IT Policy Committee

The new year is just a couple weeks old. Younger still is the tenure of the new head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc. During the first meeting of the HIT Policy Committee and her second day of office, DeSalvo delivered her first remarks which consisted mostly of an overview of her background with a particular focus on her most recent experiences as the City Health Commissioner of New Orleans.

So what do we know about the next National Coordinator’s vision for the future of healthcare reform? According to DeSalvo, it won’t necessarily being in the area of content expertise.

“I’m not a content expert like you all are, and that’s no secret, which the Secretary [Kathleen Sebelius] and I have had a conversation about,” she told the Federal Advisory Committee. “It is really remarkable that she and [Deputy Secretary] Bill Corr recognize that ONC is much more than an area of content expertise — that it is an opportunity and there is great promise in health information technology to be in the leading mix of delivery reform for this country.”