After New Orleans Health Commissioner Dr. Karen DeSalvo was named the next HHS national coordinator for health information technology, Dave deBronkart, aka ePatientDave, tweeted that he was betting DeSalvo's “follower count zooms past 627 pretty quickly.”
Whether deBrokart won or lost any bets depends on one's definition of “zoom.”
Even with a “follow Friday” recommendation from former national coordinator, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, not that many people felt it was urgent to follow DeSalvo as her Twitter follower count was only 911 as of Thursday morning.
Mostashari boasts the highest follower count in the national coordinator community, with 14,291. Acting National Coordinator Dr. Jacob Reider is next with 1,292 followers and Mostashari's predecessor, Dr. David Blumenthal has 1,033.
The first two coordinators never hopped on the Twitter bandwagon. The second national coordinator, Dr. Robert Kolodner, doesn't appear to have a Twitter presence. While the original coordinator, Dr. David Brailer, appears to have registered three handles—@DavidBrailer, @DavidJBrailer and @DavidBrailerMD—but he has not used any of these to send out messages and no one is following him under any of these aliases.
Meanwhile, DeSalvo—who uses the Twitter handle @KBDeSalvo—has sent out one message since her appointment.
“Thank you everyone for the well wishes and warm welcome!” she tweeted Dec. 21. “Looking forward to joining @ONC_HealthIT and @HHSGov Exciting work ahead.”
Follow Andis Robeznieks on Twitter: @MHARobeznieks
