DeSalvo Resigns From ONC As Vindell Washington Takes The Reins
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Former ONC Principal Deputy National Coordinator will succeed DeSalvo as agency leader.
Karen DeSalvo, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has stepped down from the post to focus on her duties as the acting assistant secretary of health for the Department of Health and Human Services. She will be succeeded by Vindell Washington, ONC principal deputy national coordinator, Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced in a blog post.
Burwell stated, “Karen has served tirelessly as the National Coordinator since joining the Department in January 2014. Under her leadership, ONC has advanced interoperability across the health system — which underpins progress on a wide range of Department and Administration priorities. She has also made significant advances to the Health Information Technology Certification Program to promote and expand the safe and secure flow of electronic health information when and where it matters most for individuals and clinicians.”
Burwell cited the list of accomplishments for which DeSalvo was responsible as part of these goals, as well as those she has accomplished as Acting Assistant Secretary of Health for HHS, concluding, “I am deeply grateful to Karen for her leadership and for her incredible service in both of these roles for nearly two years.”
DeSalvo now can concentrate her attention on critical health issues, like the emerging Zika virus. She was previously part of the Ebola response team. During her tenure at ONC, DeSalvo was focused on trying to deliver interoperability reforms in health IT and to move the industry beyond meaningful use and the federal incentive program to new methods of payment and service, according to Multibriefs.
Burwell also noted Washington’s accomplishment as Principal Deputy national Coordinator at ONC, and said, “In his capacity as National Coordinator, Vindell will continue to lead the Administration’s efforts to leverage health information technology to reform how we pay for and deliver care; transform health research and innovation to empower clinicians, individuals, and communities to manage their health’ and oversee implementation of the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap to unlock digital health data and ensure it is widely accessible, usable, and transferable throughout the public and private sectors.”
In a final note to staff, Multibriefs reported that DeSalvo wrote, “As we enter this new era of health IT, we have set a person-centered, outcome-oriented strategic vision for the federal government through the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan. We have also brought together our public and private sector partners to identify the most important actions for accelerating the seamless and secure flow of data, and the move toward a learning health system in the Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap. “The work you all are doing every day is foundational to major administration and national priorities including delivery system reform, precision medicine and public health efforts.”
Earlier this year, Washington told Healthcare Dive, “As more and more healthcare providers have adopted the technology, we’re really getting to the point of true exchange.” However, he cautioned, until certain points of adoption are reached, the actual benefits of health information exchange cannot be realized. “You can’t get true value until there’s a high amount of information to share that’s digital,” he said.