WASHINGTON – The stage is set for unprecedented healthcare reform possibilities, with many of the key leaders now in place. David Blumenthal, MD, took his new position as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on April 20. For the first six months, healthcare IT leader John Glaser, CIO of Partners Healthcare, will advise him on how best to approach the HITECH Act within the stimulus package.

Blumenthal will be responsible for $2 billion in discretionary spending via ONC for grants to be supplied under the economic recovery package.

According to Kelly Cronin, ONC program director, the money will go in part as grants to states to promote healthcare IT infrastructure, while some funding will be used to train experts to help providers with the transition to healthcare IT. ONC stimulus funding will also be applied to establishing a national research center to provide technical support to providers as they adopt healthcare IT.

“We are quite excited that we finally do have significant resources” and we can take the advancement of healthcare IT to the next level, Cronin said at an April 16 session of the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C.

Blumenthal was tapped on March 20 by the Obama administration to replace Robert Kolodner, MD, as ONC chief. Kolodner had served in the position since 2007. Blumenthal will be leaving an active physician practice with Partners HealthCare in Boston and a professorship at Harvard Medical School to join ONC.

Meanwhile, at an April 15 press briefing, Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House healthcare reform czar, touted healthcare IT as part of the president’s aggressive plan to overhaul healthcare.

As Healthcare IT News goes to press, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, selected by President Obama to head Department of Health and Human Services is awaiting full Senate confirmation. If confirmed, Sebelius would play a key role in developing and administering comprehensive healthcare reform.