The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has announced via its website that Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., a nationally renowned expert on interoperability, will be the National Coordinator for Health IT for the Biden administration.
ONC, the health IT arm of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), is at the forefront of the administration’s health IT efforts, and is the principal federal entity charged with coordination of nationwide efforts to implement and use the most advanced health information technology and the electronic exchange of health information.
In an update to leadership positions on its website as President Joe Biden officially took office on Jan. 20, HHS has inserted Tripathi as the government’s next National Coordinator for Health IT. Tripathi will replace the outgoing Don Rucker, M.D., who held the position since April 2017.
Tripathi is a well-known name in health IT circles, and is considered an interoperability and standards guru. Last spring, he was named chief alliance officer for population health management solutions company Arcadia following the vendor’s acquisition of certain assets of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit health IT advisory and clinical data analytics company of which Tripathi was president and CEO.
In a statement, Sean Carroll, Arcadia's CEO, noted, "It is a pleasure to congratulate Micky on his appointment to serve our great nation in this capacity. He added, “I can personally attest to Micky's industry-wide leadership on healthcare interoperability and to his vision for the value that shared, timely, and accurate data provides for improving healthcare delivery and reducing costs. No one is better suited for this absolutely critical mission."
Tripathi has been heavily involved in various healthcare interoperability initiatives over the years, and serves on the board of directors of the Sequoia Project, the CommonWell Health Alliance, the CARIN Alliance, HL7 International, the HL7 FHIR Foundation, and Datica. He is also the project manager of the Argonaut Project, an industry collaboration to accelerate the adoption of FHIR.
One of Tripathi’s key priorities early on will be navigating how to balance the industry’s need for greater interoperability against providers prioritizing COVID-19 response. To that end, in late October, ONC extended the deadlines, via an interim final rule, for stakeholders to comply with a variety of information blocking and other health IT-related mandates as part of ONC's Cures Act Final Rule.
These rules are considered vital to spurring progress around data sharing and easing patient access to their health information, but Rucker has previously noted that folks need additional time and flexibility to work on immediate COVID threats. For now, compliance dates and timeframes to meet certain requirements related to the information blocking and Conditions and Maintenance of Certification (CoC/MoC) requirements are set to kick in on April 5.
Former National Coordinator for Health IT, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., congratulated Tripathi on Twitter, calling his appointment “a fantastic pick.”
Huge congratulations to my friend Micky Tripathi on being named President Biden's National Coordinator for Health Information Technology!
— Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_MD) January 20, 2021
A fantastic pick who understands technology, policy, and real world practice workflows, and has credibility with allhttps://t.co/7GVAwa2DaU
Tripathi also responded to a tweet from Rucker that congratulated the incoming National Coordinator while noting his “rich experiences in health IT.”
Healthcare Innovation will have more on this development as it continues to unfold.
