WASHINGTON – David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health IT, announced Friday the final members of the health IT policy committee established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Besides Blumenthal himself, the other HHS appointees are: Michael J. Klag, MD, dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Deven C. McGraw. Health Privacy Project, Center for Democracy & Technology. Blumenthal will serve as chair.

The health IT policy committee has been waiting for members to be named by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was confirmed last week. The policy panel will meet for the first time on May 11 and the standards committee, also mandated under ARRA, on May 15. The groups will help HHS define meaningful use under the recovery act, with a definition expected in late spring or early summer, Blumenthal said.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is "totally focused" on President Obama's initiatives to establish healthcare IT. Blumenthal said, on a conference call Friday. However,  the bottom-line goal is not about health IT advancement, but rather improving patient care.

Under ARRA, an additional 13 members of the policy committee were appointed April 3 by Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general. Four members are to be appointed by the majority and minority leaders of the Senate and the Speaker and minority leader of the House.

 The Health IT policy committee will make recommendations to the national coordinator on a policy framework for a nationwide health information network, including standards for the secure and private exchange of patient medical information. The policy committee's work will be similar to the former American Health Information Community (AHIC) and will recognize the work of that group and its successor, Blumenthal said.

 Of the new panel, Blumenthal said, "it would be foolish to assemble a group of people with as wide and diverse experience as these people and not take their recommendations very seriously; and I will."

 Blumenthal said,  he is confident that "these committees will provide valuable insight to help develop important health IT policy in the next few years."

 John Halamka, chairman of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), told his members to nominate themselves in March for the new standards committee. AHIC 2.0, the private-public partnership known as the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC), also advised its members to apply. The law specifies that the HHS secretary may select all of NeHC to be on the new standards committee. 

 Blumenthal said ONC is in discussions with NeHC and has not yet determined its role going forward.

 Among the April 3 GAO appointees for the federal HIT advisory committee were Paul Tang, MD, chief medical information officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California, a member of the editorial board of Healthcare IT News, and Marc Probst, CIO of Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City.

 According to Dave Roberts, vice president of government relations for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society said applicants for the committee flooded in to the GAO and Capitol Hill.

 According to ARRA, members of the HIT policy committee must represent "a balance among various sectors of the healthcare system so that no single sector unduly influences the recommendations of the policy committee."

 Also named to the Policy Committee were:

• David Bates    
  Brigham and Women’s Hospital
   
• Christine Bechtel    
  National Partnership for Women & Families
   
• Neil Calman        
  The Institute for Family Health
   
• Richard Chapman    
  Kindred Healthcare
   
• Adam Clark    
  Lance Armstrong Foundation
   
• Arthur Davidson    
  Denver Public Health Department
   
• Connie White Delaney    
  University of Minnesota/School of Nursing
   
• Paul Egerman    
  Businessman/Entrepreneur
   
• Judith Faulkner    
  Epic Systems Corporation
   
• Gayle Harrell    
  Former Florida State Legislator
   
• Charles Kennedy    
  WellPoint, Inc.
   
• Michael Klag    
  Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
   
• David Lansky    
  Pacific Business Group on Health
   
• Deven McGraw    
  Center for Democracy & Technology
   
• Frank Nemec    
  Gastroenterology Associates, Inc.
   
• Marc Probst    
  Intermountain Healthcare
   
• Latanya Sweeney    
  Carnegie Mellon University
   
• Paul Tang    
  Palo Alto Medical Foundation
   
• Scott White    
  1199 SEIU Training and Employment Fund

 In addition, appointments were made to the HIT Standards Committee.

• Jonathan Perlin, MD, Chair 
  Healthcare Corporation of America
   
• John Halamka, MD. Co-Chair 
  Harvard Medical School
   
• Dixie Baker, PhD 
  Science Applications International Corporation
   
• Anne Castro 
  BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
   
• Christopher Chute, MD 
  Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
   
• Janet Corrigan, PhD 
  National Quality Forum
   
• John Derr, R.Ph. 
  Golden Living, LLC
   
• Linda Dillman 
  Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
   
• James Ferguson 
  Kaiser Permanente
   
• Steven Findlay, MPH 
  Consumers Union
   
• Douglas Fridsma, MD, PhD 
  Arizona Biomedical Collaborataive 1
   
• C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA 
  Cleveland Clinic Foundation
   
• Stanley M. Huff, MD 
  Intermountain Healthcare
   
• Kevin Hutchinson 
  Prematics, Inc.
   
• Elizabeth O. Johnson, RN 
  Tenet Health
   
• John Klimek, R.Ph. 
  National Council for Prescription Drug Programs
   
• David McCallie, Jr., MD 
  Cerner Corporation
   
• Judy Murphy, RN 
  Aurora Health Care
   
• J. Marc Overhage, MD, PhD 
  Regenstrief Institute
   
• Gina Perez, MPA 
  Delaware Health Information Network
   
• Wes Rishel 
  Gartner, Inc.
   
• Sharon Terry, MA 
  Genetic Alliance
   
• James Walker, MD 
  Geisinger Health System