The ONC's Revolving Door Of Leadership
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
With Karen DeSalvo’s departure from ONC, yet another gap in leadership is exposed.
As Health IT Outcomes reported, ONC National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo is leaving the agency to help HHS with the response to Ebola. DeSalvo’s departure is just the most recent in a line of leadership turnovers at the agency.
According to the Health Care Blog, HHS spokesman Peter Ashkenaz said of the situation, “HHS Secretary Burwell asked National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo to serve as Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, effective immediately. In this role she will work with the Secretary on pressing public health issues, including becoming a part of the Department’s team responding to Ebola. Dr. DeSalvo has deep roots and a belief in public health and its critical value in assuring the health of everyone, not only in crisis, but every day.”
Further, Ashkenaz explained, “Lisa Lewis, ONC’s chief operating officer, will serve as the Acting National Coordinator. However, Dr. DeSalvo will continue to support the work of ONC while she is at OASH.”
Forbes reports that in July, ONC lost Lygeia Ricciardi, director of the ONC Office of Consumer eHealth as well as Chief Privacy Officer Joy Pritts. Recently, Judy Murphy stepped down as director of the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety at ONC to become chief nursing officer of IBM Healthcare Global Business Services.
Lucia Savage replaced Pritts just last week, and Lana Moriarty took over the Consumer eHealth office in September. Dr. Jon White last week was placed as interim head of the ONC Office of Clinical Quality and Safety and acting ONC chief medical officer, while Dr. Andy Gettinger of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire was named interim head of patient safety for the IT office.
And earlier this month, Health IT Outcomes reported Office of the Chief Scientist head Doug Fridsma announced he will step down on November 1 to join the American Medical Informatics Association as president and CEO. He was instrumental in the 2011 launch of ONC's Standards & Interoperability Framework, in which individuals from public and private sectors collaborated to facilitate health information exchange, and also helped with the rollout of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Clinical Quality Framework in March.
Jacob Reider, MD, will also be stepping down from his post at the ONC’s Chief Medical Officer and Deputy National Coordinator. As EHR Intelligence reports, Reider told his staff in a note, “As some of you know, I have been commuting to DC from my home in Albany NY, and committed to my family that three years would be the limit of such an arrangement. I’m a marathon runner – so I have very good stamina – but even marathons have a finish line!”
Reider indicated to EHR Intelligence that he and DeSalvo timed their decisions in order to ensure a smooth transition atop the ONC, stating, “Karen and I worked closely on the timing of both this announcement and my departure so that there would be a good transition, strong clinical leadership at ONC, and continued ONC strength on the issues that remain so important to me: decision support, quality improvement, health IT safety, and of course usability.” In this statement, Reider also made clear his intentions to leave his current post in late November.