ONC welcomes new CMO

Thomas Mason, MD, will be joining the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) as the new chief medical officer, effective Feb. 23.

Mason will lead and champion clinical oversight of ONC programs and clinical coordination within ONC and regularly engage with physician organizations, according to an email sent to ONC employees by Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc.

Mason is a board-certified internist with an emphasis on primary care and preventative medicine with 14 years of experience. "Throughout his career, he has led the implementation of multiple EHR systems. Tom also has more than 10 years of additional experience and training in the principles of public health and population medicine," she wrote.

Mason comes from the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) in Chicago, the third largest public hospital system in the country, where he is CMIO of the Ambulatory and Community Health Network of Cook County. In this role, he has led the implementation of an outpatient EHR system consisting of 16 primary care health centers and 110 specialty care clinics staffed by more than 600 physicians and serving more than 200,000 patients a year. He also plays a vital role in the implementation of the patient-centered medical home wellness management and disease prevention model at CCHHS.

Mason earned his MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Hospital.

"Tom, as am I, is a huge champion for advancing a person-centered, interoperable, learning health system that results in better care, better quality and better outcomes for individual, community and population health," DeSalvo wrote. Mason will report directly to her.