Lucia Savage has been hired as Omada Health’s chief privacy and regulatory officer (Source: Omada Health)
One nice thing about a change in administration is that it often provides opportunities for the private sector to hire regulatory insiders from the Department of Health and Human Services. To that end, Omada Health has added the former chief privacy officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, according to a news release. It’s the latest in a series of opportunistic hires for Omada, a digital health company focused on helping people change behavior to prevent Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Lucia Savage will serve in the newly created post of chief privacy and regulatory officer. Her responsibilities will include leading Omada’s regulatory strategy, ensuring the privacy and security of participant personal health information, and enabling Omada and its healthcare partners take advantage of Omada’s industry-leading digital platform, the news release said. She will also help coordinate seamless integration of Omada’s program with electronic medical records and patient data record systems. She will also support Omada customers as they integrate the company’s program into clinical processes.
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At the ONC, Savage dealt with issues such as HIPAA, state privacy law, research on human subjects, the Privacy Act, and security engineering. Prior to the ONC, she worked for United Healthcare as the senior associate general counsel. In that role, she supervised a team that represented United on its work with large data transactions tied to health information exchanges, healthcare transparency projects, and academic research.
Sean Duffy, Omada Health CEO and cofounder, said in the release that Savage’s hire comes as the company expands partnerships and prepares to start offering diabetes prevention to Medicare beneficiaries in 2018.
“..there is no one we’d rather have shepherding Omada’s privacy, regulatory, and compliance efforts. Lucia will also continue her work demystifying HIPAA across the industry, and lead the way in demonstrating that regulatory infrastructure and innovation are fully compatible.”
About three to four months before staff cuts at genetic screening and counseling service Counsyl were announced, Omada hired three senior staff. They included Omada’s new chief commercial officer, Tom Schoenherr, Rob Guigley, who joined as vice president of sales, heading its health plan and reimbursement strategy. Mark Konopka became vice president of sales at Omada, leading the company’s employer and health system strategy.
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