The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has announced plans to reorganize its operational structure in order to better support the implementation of the federal economic stimulus law's health IT provisions, Government Health IT reports.
The changes took effect Tuesday.
The reorganization will create five new offices under ONC:
- The Office of the Chief Privacy Officer: This newly created office will advise the national coordinator for health IT and other local agencies on data privacy and security issues;
- The Office of the Chief Scientist: This office, which will replace ONC's interoperability and standards group, will evaluate and track health IT grant and research programs;
- The Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy: This office, which will replace ONC's programs and coordination division, will oversee programs designed to promote interoperability, information exchange and "meaningful use" of health IT;
- The Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Operations: This office, which will replace ONC's policy and research group, will support administrative functions such as budget formulation, contract management and financial planning; and
- The Office of Economic Modeling and Analysis: This office, which will replace ONC's health IT adoption division, will use statistical and economic approaches to analyze health IT investments and policies (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 12/1).
The five new offices will report directly to National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal. Officials have yet to announce appointments to the new positions (Goedert,
Health Data Management, 12/1).