Mostashari to head ONC

Farzad Mostashari, MD, has been named National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), effective April 8, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Mostashari succeeds outgoing coordinator David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, who has held the post since 2009.

Mostashari joined ONC in July 2009 and has served as Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy.

Previously, he served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as Assistant Commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he facilitated provider adoption of prevention-oriented health IT in underserved communities.

Mostashari also led the New York City Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the NYC Department of Health, charged with providing epidemiologic and statistical expertise and data for decision making to the health department.

He completed his graduate training at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Yale Medical School in New Haven, Conn., internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and completed the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. He was one of the lead investigators in the outbreaks of West Nile Virus and anthrax in New York City, and among the first developers of real-time electronic disease surveillance systems nationwide, according to an ONC statement.