Dr. Luther Cobb has begun his yearlong term as president of the California Medical Association, succeeding Dr. Richard Thorp.
Cobb, 62, works in private practice in Eureka, Calif., performing general, thoracic and vascular surgery.
He is a former chairman of the CMA Council on Legislation and has served on the organization's executive committee since 2006.
Niall Brennan has been named big data czar at the CMS.
Brennan will head the new Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics as the CMS' first chief data officer, “tasked with overseeing improvements in data collection and dissemination as the agency strives to be more transparent,” according to the CMS.
Brennan, who has been serving as the acting director of the CMS' Offices of Enterprise Management, was appointed to the newly created position after leading various CMS data programs and initiatives at the OEM.
“It's clear how much data transparency will help the country improve outcomes, control costs and aid consumer decisionmaking,” CMS Principal Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt said in a statement. “This appointment signals to the industry that there is no turning back from the healthcare data agenda.”
Before coming to the CMS, Brennan was with the Brookings Institution, where he directed a number of efforts to better measure the quality and cost of healthcare, according to the CMS website.
Ted Reynolds has been named a senior VP at CTG, an information technology services and consulting company based in Buffalo, N.Y. He will have executive responsibility for the company's healthcare IT division, CTG Health Solutions, which serves the provider and payer markets.
Reynolds, 59, joined CTG in 2006 as a client services executive and was named a VP in 2011 concurrent with being promoted to head CTG Health Solutions. Before joining CTG, he was employed by Epic Systems Corp. in several leadership, business development and implementation roles.
Curran
Connie Curran, who had been in healthcare consulting and leadership for more than 30 years, passed away this month at the age of 67 after a long battle with cancer.
Curran was president of Curran Associates, a healthcare consulting firm, and board chair of DeVry Education Group, which operates for-profit colleges. She was also founder, president and CEO of CurranCare, a national management and consulting services firm that was acquired by Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health, where she became president of Cardinal Health Consulting Services.
A well-regarded authority in the industry, Curran held a number of positions at hospitals and academic institutions in New York and Chicago, including chief nursing officer at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. She also served as dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin and sat on the board of Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, the National Student Nurses Association, Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, Ill., and several other organizations.
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