https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2e9sZT7jaw
Doug Fridsma, the Chief Science Officer and Director of the Office of Science and Technology for the Office of National Coordinator is leaving for a new gig — CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association, according to a letter from ONC head Karen De Salvo that was obtained by MedCity News. His departure is the latest in a series of changes since Farzad Mostashari stepped down and later formed Aledade to help physicians form accountable care organizations and Karen DeSalvo took on the National Coordinator role in December.
Fridsma is credited with creating the Standards & Interoperability Framework — a collaborative community of folks from the public and private sectors who provide the tools, services and guidance to support the exchange of health information. Started in January 2011, it is designed to not only help providers share and use EHRs, but to facilitate conversations about things like a lab results interface initiative, blue button, structured data capture initiative and eHealth collaboration between the EU and U.S.
Fridsma’s office also provided an open source technology platform to create apps for clinical settings such as Cardiac Risk to measure the potential for heart disease, heart attacks and strokes and Pediatric Growth Chart to give a deeper level of information than the typical pediatric growth chart.
Prior to developing the S & I Framework, Fridsma participated in shifting the Nationwide Health Information Network into a public-private partnership managed outside of ONC, according to the letter.
American Medical Informatics Association formed in 1988 with the merger of three industry associations: the American Association for Medical Systems and Informatics; the American College of Medical Informatics; and the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care. It develops and maps policy priorities for more than 4,000 health care professionals, informatics researchers, and leaders in biomedicine, health care and science.
He is scheduled to start his new post in November.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Until November when he begins his new journey at AMIA, Doug will work closely with me and our senior team to make the transition as seamless as possible for our staff and our partners. As you all know, earlier this year Erica Galvez took on a new role as Interoperability Portfolio Manager, and our work in and focus on interoperability will remain with her moving forward. In addition, Steve Posnack will continue in the role he took on several months ago as the Director of The Office of Standards and Technology.”
Joy Pritts, chief privacy officer with the ONC, left her position in July. David Muntz, who served as ONC Principal Deputy National Coordinator, resigned in September last year and later joined GetWellNetwork.
