DeSalvo resigns as ONC head, stays with HHS

Karen DeSalvo, MD, has announced her resignation as the head of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). She will be replaced by her principal deputy director, Vindell Washington, MD, MHCM, FACEP, as national coordinator.

DeSalvo says she intends to direct her focus on her rolse as Assistant Secretary of Health of HHS, a role she assumed in October of 2014 to aid in the fight against Ebola.

“Under her leadership, ONC has advanced interoperability across the health system – which underpins progress on a wide range of Department and Administration priorities,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell wrote to in an email to ONC staff. “During her tenure, ONC has worked with other federal partners and the private sector to update the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and develop a Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, both of which chart a person-centered path for improving health outcomes by unlocking health data through tools like open application programming interfaces (APIs).”

In regards to Washington, Burwell wrote the following, “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.”