HIMSS tradition continues with Kolodner keynote

By Kristin Courtemanche, Contributing Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. − As successor to David Brailer, MD, the country’s first National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Robert Kolodner, MD, has shown in his 10 months in office that he has the drive and experience to deliver on President Bush’s vision of a nationwide health information network.

Kolodner boasts a broad background in medical informatics, but it is his federal healthcare IT administration skills that will serve him well as he works with Congress and other government agencies to push through an agenda.

Before taking office, he hailed from the Veterans Health Administration in the Department of Veterans Affairs where he served as Chief Health Informatics Officer and helped develop and maintain oversight of the VA’s electronic health records systems.

As advisor to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt on all healthcare IT initiatives, Kolodner is responsible for the implementation of a strategic plan to foster nationwide adoption of standardized healthcare IT.

His keynote address on Tuesday morning, February 26, will undoubtedly encompass his history of advocacy for comprehensive, computerized healthcare information systems for clinicians and patients, as well as HHS’s mission to “link all health records through an interoperable system that protects privacy as it connects patients, providers and payers, resulting in fewer medical mistakes, less hassle, lower costs and better health.”

At the fourth Nationwide Health Information Network, or NHIN, Forum in December, Kolodner spoke about his office’s efforts to deploy standards and policies of core network services to better enable a nationwide exchange of data. Designed to allow secure routing and information delivery, these standards and policies will also permit patient lookup and information retrieval as well as consumer-managed access to appropriate information.

By creating standardized network specifications, other health information exchanges that wish to join the network or networks will be able to align their products and services to a national platform.

Ongoing trial implementations have sparked several additional entities to come forward and join the demonstrations. “This validates that others see the value of what we’re doing and want to be a part of the efforts,” Kolodner said.

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