David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. is the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for the Department of Health and Human Services, as chosen by the Obama Administration. He’s faced with the task of leading the implementation of a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected health information technology infrastructure as called for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes a $19.5 billion investment in health information technology to save money, improve quality of care for patients, and make the country’s health care system more efficient.
Prior to this post, Blumenthal served as a physician and director of the Institute for Health Policy at The Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston. Additionally, he was Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He also served as director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement. And prior to that, he was senior vice president at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served as executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Management and as a lecturer on Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Blumenthal also worked on Senator Edward Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research in the 1970s. More recently, he served as a senior health adviser to the Obama for America campaign. He has extensively researched the dissemination of health information technology, quality management in health care, the determinants of physician behavior, access to health services, and the extent and consequences of academic-industrial relationships in the health sciences.