Cerner chief, 3 others named to HIT Policy Committee

Cerner Corp. CEO Neal Patterson, patient advocate Kim Schofield and physician informaticists Dr. Christoph Lehmann and Dr. Paul Tang have been named to the Health IT Policy Committee, the General Accountability Office has announced.

Patterson is the co-founder and board chairman of the Kansas City, Mo.-based developer of electronic health-record systems. He is to serve as the representative of the health information technology industry on the panel, which was created under the authority of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and whose role is to advise the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS on policy issues. Under the ARRA, the Comptroller General of the U.S., who heads the GAO, has the authority to appoint 13 members of the HITPC's 20 members.

Schofield is a health educator and the advocacy chairwoman of the Georgia chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America in Smyrna, Ga., and will fill the position reserved for a representative of patients and consumers. Lehmann is a professor in pediatrics and biomedical informatics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University and is the founding medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics Child Health Informatics Center. He will serve in the slot for an expert on vulnerable populations.

Tang, the chief innovation and technology officer at the Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Foundation, was reappointed to represent physicians. Tang has served on the HITPC since its inception in 2010 as is its vice chairman.

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