The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services issued the following press release:
HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (IT) today announced the appointment of Charles P. Friedman, Ph.D., as deputy national coordinator for Health IT in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). Dr. Friedman had recently been serving as senior advisor to the National Coordinator for Health IT Robert M. Kolodner, M.D.
'Chuck's recent experience in assisting me in matters related to program planning, development, and evaluation has prepared him well to assume the deputy role,' said Dr. Kolodner. 'As he carries out his new role, Dr. Friedman will continue to contribute scientific and managerial expertise and leadership to initiatives under way in the office's four directorates.'
Prior to joining ONC, Dr. Friedman was institute associate director for research informatics and information technology at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Friedman joined NIH in 2003 as a senior scholar at the National Library of Medicine. Previously, Dr. Friedman was professor and associate vice chancellor for biomedical informatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he established a health sciences-wide Center for Biomedical Informatics.
Over a 26-year academic career, Dr. Friedman's research focused on how to build information technology resources to support health care, research, and education and how to evaluate the impact of these resources. He is the author of several textbooks and has authored or co-authored over 150 articles in scientific journals. He is an elected fellow and past president of the American College of Medical Informatics.
As deputy national coordinator, Dr. Friedman will serve as operations officer for ONC's health IT initiatives to develop, maintain, and direct the implementation of the strategic plan to guide nationwide adoption of interoperable health IT to reduce medical errors, improve quality, and produce greater value in health care.
Dr. Friedman's appointment was effective Nov. 11, 2007.
