Lucia Savage named new chief privacy officer at ONC

Who: Lucia Savage, 52

New role: Chief privacy officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, replacing Joy Pritts, effective Oct. 20. She will help manage the privacy implications of electronic health records and health data interchange.

Previous position: Savage most recently served as senior associate general counsel for UnitedHealthcare, the giant Minnetonka, Minn.-based health insurer. According to a memo announcing her ONC appointment, Savage worked on United's health information exchange and data transparency projects, among other duties. She also served on the governing board for the CMS' Multi-Payer Claims database project.

Background: Savage has a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. She has worked at Stanford University as the school's benefits compliance officer and was general counsel at the Pacific Business Group on Health.

Complex issues: In the memo announcing Savage's hire, ONC chief Dr. Karen DeSalvo said Savage, in her previous roles, has been working on “the complex issues of maintaining patient privacy while working to fully realize the potential of health information exchange for better patient care in a learning healthcare system.”