Late last week it was reported that National Coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo would leave the ONC to serve as Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and join HHS’ Ebola response efforts.The American Medical Association Association was quick to release a statement on Monday, expressing concern over the departure of DeSalvo and other key ONC leadership, including Dr. Jacob Reider.
In the AMA statement, the association writes “DeSalvo’s departure, in addition to those of several other senior staff including the Deputy Director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), Jacob Reider, which was also announced last week, leaves a significant leadership gap which could jeopardize the growing momentum around interoperability.”
The ONC’s response was immediate and in a post that same day made clear DeSalvo will continue to work on policy matters and the finalization and implementation of the Interoperability Roadmap.
From the ONC:
[content_box]Dr. DeSalvo will serve as Acting ASH while maintaining her leadership of ONC. Importantly, she will continue to work on high level policy issues at ONC, and ONC will follow the policy direction that she has set. She will remain the chair of the Health IT Policy Committee; she will continue to lead on the development and finalization of the Interoperability Roadmap; and she will remain involved in meaningful use policymaking. She will also continue to co-chair the HHS cross-departmental work on delivery system reform.Enter your box content here…
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Read the ONC post and the AMA’s statement.