White House names Park as federal CTO

President Barack Obama is appointing HHS Chief Technology Officer Todd Park as the new federal chief technology officer, the White House announced Friday.

In a blog post announcing the appointment, the White House said Park has served as a "hugely energetic force for positive change." at HHS. "He led the successful execution of an array of breakthrough initiatives, including the creation of HealthCare.gov, the first website to provide consumers with a comprehensive inventory of public and private health insurance plans available across the nation by ZIP code in a single, easy-to-use tool," the White House said. Park succeeds Aneesh Chopra, the first federal CTO, who stepped down from that position earlier this year.

Obama created the CTO post in January 2009 "to help modernize a federal government relying too heavily on 20th century technology and to better use technological tools to address a wide range of national challenges," the White House said in the blog post. Park will continue the work of Chopra, who served "an inspired and productive three years on the job," the White House said.

Park joined the Obama administration in August 2009. In 1997, he co-founded Athenahealth, a vendor of Web-based practice-management and electronic health-record systems and services for office-based physicians.

At the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 2012 Annual Conference and Exhibition last month in Las Vegas, Park gave an impassioned and personalized appeal for innovation in health IT.

Park helped organize the first two annual "Health Datapalooza" events—which he described during his HIMSS presentation as "giant festivals of awesomeness"—in Washington to promote the development of innovative IT applications for healthcare improvement."

A third such Health Datapalooza is scheduled to take place in Washington on June 5 and 6.