Physician informaticist Paul Tang, vice president and chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Foundation and Judith Faulkner, chairman, president and CEO of Epic Systems Corp., Verona, Wis., are two of 13 members announced by the Office of the Comptroller General to serve on the new Health Information Technology Policy Committee under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The appointments were made by Gene Dodaro, acting comptroller general and head of the Government Accountability Office.
The comptroller general is the appointing authority under the stimulus act for 13 positions to the HIT Policy Committee. The committee, as its name implies, will advise the HHS secretary and the head of the Office of the National Coordinator, on health IT policy issues, including the setting of standards and testing criteria for health IT systems and infrastructure. The stimulus act required the comptroller to name committee members to represent 10 sectors of the healthcare industry.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) named Paul Egerman, Weston, Mass., the founder of healthcare IT systems developer IDX, the CEO and chairman of medical transcription service provider eScription, Needham, Mass., to the HIT Policy Committee on March 30, according to the Congressional Record. The office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had not responded to a request regarding his choice for the committee by deadline. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) named Gayle Harrell, Stuart, Fla., a former school teacher and member of the Florida House of Representatives since 2000, to the HIT policy committee on March 31, according to the Congressional Record. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), named physician Frank Nemec of Las Vegas, a gastroenterologist, several weeks ago, according to a Reid spokesman.
