Who: Jodi Daniel
Stepping down as: Director of the Office of Policy in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS where she has served for 10 years. Daniel's last day at ONC is Oct. 9. Her deputy for the past year, Elise Anthony, will become the acting director.
Key responsibilities: Daniel, a lawyer, has led the ONC's regulatory activities, including the development of standards and certification criteria for the electronic health-record incentive payment program and governance models for the proposed nationwide health information exchange. She also oversees a host of federal advisory committees.
Building Katrina Health: When Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast in 2005, Daniel oversaw the legal work to establish Katrina Health, a public/private interoperability project to help displaced victims transfer their medical records, using her expertise to ensure the agency “didn't cross any lines,” said Dr. David Brailer, the ONC's first leader.
The tipping point: “The greatest thing was seeing the shift, where we had this promise of health IT and over the past 10 years seeing us hit a tipping point where most hospitals and many doctors have adopted the technology,” Daniel said.
