Arien Malec to Leave Direct Project for Private Sector

Last week, Doug Fridsma, M.D., director office of standards and interoperability announced in the HealthIT Buzz Blog that Arien Malec submitted his resignation as coordinator of the Direct Project and the Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework to return to the private sector.

He said that Malec’s role as Coordinator of the S&I Framework will be transitioned to Jitin Asnaani, who will also act as interim Coordinator for the Direct Project. Asnaani’s experience includes being the initiative coordinator for two of the current S&I initiatives and role in helping State Health Information Exchanges to implement Direct Project specifications.

Malec said that he decision to leave was in part since he was West Coast based and much of the Direct work was in Washington, D.C., and it had been hard on him and his family. He clarified, “Sometimes people read too much into decisions like this, so to be completely clear, I am not making this decision because I disagree with anything that is currently happening.”