Attorney Pritts named as first chief privacy officer for ONC

Joy L. Pritts, chief privacy officer for ONC. Image source: Minnesota Department of Health

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has named Joy L. Pritts, a lawyer, as the first chief privacy officer at its Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

The chief privacy officer, a new role at ONC, is part of the ongoing reorganization, as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As chief privacy officer, Pritts will advise David Blumenthal, MD, the national coordinator for health IT, on forming policies on privacy, security and data stewardship of electronic health information.

Pritts is an assistant research professor at Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

According to her Georgetown profile, her primary area of research is the privacy of medical information, including individuals’ access to their own medical information. Pritts also conducts legal research and analysis on both state and federal privacy laws.

Pritts' current research is focused on the implementation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the interplay of the federal and state privacy laws and the access to and use of medical information by financial institutions.

Pritts holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, where she was an associate editor of the law review.