Experienced Health IT Execs Appointed to Lead in 2012
National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostishari, MD, ScM,  appointed David Muntz, MBA, to the new position of Principal Deputy National Coordinator in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT in January 2012, while Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FAAN, was appointed Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy in late 2011. Both the positions and appointees have been posted recently on the ONC’s Web site.

David Muntz, MBA, FCHIME, CHCIO
Principal Deputy National Coordinator

Muntz was  Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Baylor Health Care System in Dallas and a 38-year veteran of medical information systems. According to the ONC Description of Organizational Structure and Offices, the “Principal Deputy National Coordinator works with and reports directly to the National Coordinator and is responsible for day-to-day operations, decision making, and staff management of ONC. The Principal Deputy will oversee the activities of four offices within ONC: Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy; Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Operations; Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation and Modeling; and, Office of the Chief Scientist. One of the current ONC offices, the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, is a position mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and will continue to report to the National Coordinator.”

According to a press release issued in conjunction with 2010 National Health IT Week,  “David Muntz, a 37-year veteran of Medical Information Systems, is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Baylor Health Care System in Dallas. As CIO, Mr. Muntz is responsible for more than 650 employees who care for a delivery system with more than 140 points of entry. Mr. Muntz works closely with hospitals, leadership, boards, physicians, nurses and clinicians system-wide toward improving information technology at Baylor. Since he joined Baylor in 2006, the hospital has received notoriety in healthcare IT, most notably as the #1 innovator in the healthcare sector on the 2007 Information Week 500 list.

“Mr. Muntz is a Fellow of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and currently serves on the CHIME Board of Trustees, Advocacy Leadership Team, and Policy Steering Committee. Also an active member of the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), he has been a speaker for  numerous local, state, and national organizations. He was recognized as CIO Innovator of the Year by CHIME in 2005 and was listed as one of the “Top 5 CIOs” in the June 1999 issue of Health Management.

“Prior to Baylor, Mr. Muntz most recently served as the Senior Vice President and CIO at Texas HealthResources, where he was responsible for all information system functions including Medical Records. While working for Texas Health Resources, Muntz’s information services organization received national recognition nine years in a row. Mr. Muntz also had a distinguished career with the Wadley Research Institute and Blood Bank, starting as a biostatistician and eventually becoming CEO of the Institute. During his tenure with Wadley, Mr. Muntz led the team that created a complete online record for the community’s blood bank. In addition, Wadley’s other divisions, the hospital, clinic,
and physician practices, shared a computer based patient record created by Mr. Muntz and his staff.

“Mr. Muntz holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and an AB degree in Premedicine and English from Columbia College in New York City.”

Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FAAN
Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy

According to the ONC Web site, “Judy Murphy is Deputy National Coordinator for Programs & Policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C.  She is a nurse, who came to the ONC in December of 2011 with more than 25 years of health informatics experience at Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, an integrated delivery network with 15 hospitals, 120 ambulatory centers, home health agencies and over 30,000 employees.  She led the EHR program since 1995, when Aurora was one of the early adopters of health IT.  Most recently she was Vice President-EHR Applications, and managed the organization’s successful achievement of Stage 1 EHR Meaningful, with incentive payments beginning in September 2011.

ONC Organization Chart
ONC Posts New Organizational Chart Dated Nov 16, 2011.

Description of Organizational Structure and Offices

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is directed by the National Coordinator and is assisted by the Chief Privacy Officer, Health Care Reform Coordinator, and Principal Deputy National Coordinator as well as the Deputy National Coordinator for Operations, Deputy National Coordinator for Programs & Policy, Chief Scientist, and the Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation and Modeling.

The Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, a position mandated by the Recovery Act, advises on privacy, security, and data stewardship of electronic health information and coordinate ONC’s privacy and related efforts with similar privacy officers in other Federal agencies, State and regional agencies, and foreign countries.

Health Care Reform Coordinator is the principal advisor to the National Coordinator for all Health Reform issues. The coordinator ensures the programs to accelerate adoption of interoperable health IT lay the necessary foundation for health care reform including new payment policy that achieves better care, better health, and lower costs.

Principal Deputy National Coordinator works with and reports directly to the National Coordinator and is responsible for day-to-day operations, decision making, and staff management of ONC. The Principal Deputy will oversee the activities of four offices within ONC: Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy; Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Operations; Office of Economic Analysis, Evaluation and Modeling; and, Office of the Chief Scientist. One of the current ONC offices, the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, is a position mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and will continue to report to the National Coordinator.

The Office of Economic Analysis and Modeling provides analyses to the National Coordinator, including advanced modeling of the U.S. health care system for simulating the micro- and macroeconomic effects of investing in health IT.

The Office of the Chief Scientist is responsible for research and for identifying innovations in information technology that can be applied in health care settings, and which will be the ONC interface for international activities.

The Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy assumes functions previously performed by the Office of Health Information Technology Adoption, the Office of Interoperability and Standards, the Office of Adoption Provider Support, the Office of State and Community Programs, and the Office of Policy and Planning. The new office will lead ONC programs related to health information exchange, regional extension centers, training of the health IT workforce, and the development of technical standards for interoperability, security, and certification of health IT systems. The new office comprises:

• The Office of Standards and Interoperability, with responsibility for standards, security, certification, the Nationwide Health Information Network, Federal Health Architecture and the CONNECT program;

• The Office of Provider Adoption Support, which administers the Regional Extension Centers program and health IT workforce development;

• The Office of State and Community Programs, which administers the state-level health information exchange program and the Beacon Communities Program; and

• The Office of Policy and Planning, which is realigned to include all policy development, including privacy and security policy, and is liaison with legal affairs and legislative affairs, regulations development and externally focused strategic planning.

Deputy National Coordinator for Operations is responsible for activities that are vital to supporting ONC’s numerous programs and enhancing ONC’s ability to communication about health IT. This office comprises:

• The Office of Communications, which is responsible for stakeholder communications and constituency relations; and
• The Office of Mission Support, which supports day-to-day operations, including new grants processing, contracts management, budget execution and reporting, human resources, as well as internal strategic planning, special projects, and budget formulation; and
• The Office of Oversight, which assures oversight of grants, internal and external performance reporting, and auditing; and
• The Office of Grants Management, which is responsible for carrying out full lifecycle grants management functions and providing procedural and technical business support to ONC grant award recipients and program managers. The office is charged with awarding and managing ONC’s portfolio of grant programs. Through the execution of the grants lifecycle, the office ensures that federal grant funds are properly awarded and are managed effectively to ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

DIRECTORY as of 1/9/2012
Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology