The Government Accountability Office has appointed James Ferguson, Carolyn Petersen and Karen van Caulil to its health information technology policy committee.Ferguson will take the role that represents payers while Petersen will serve as an advocate for patients and consumers and van Caulil will represent employers, GAO said Thursday.
“It’s important to have the input of key stakeholders in the development of health information technology policy,†said Gene Dodaro, comptroller general of the U.S. and head of GAO.
Ferguson currently serves as a fellow at the Institute for Health Policy and as vice president of HIT strategy and policy at managed care company Kaiser Permanente.
He is also a member of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization’s board and the America’s Health Insurance Plans’ business technology advisory group.
Petersen serves on the ethics committee of the American Medical Informatics Association and previously worked as a consumer representative for the Food and Drug Administration’s anesthesiology and respiratory therapy devices panel, the National Cancer Informatics Program and the Improving Healthcare Systems Advisory Panel of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
Van Caulil serves as president and CEO of the Florida Health Care Coalition and chair of the board of governors of the National Business Coalition on Health.
