Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
Effective April 8, 2011
[Bio from ONC site accessed April 9, 2011]

Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM serves as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Farzad joined ONC in July 2009.

Previously, he served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as Assistant Commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he facilitated the adoption of prevention-oriented health information technology by over 1,500 providers in underserved communities. Dr. Mostashari also led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded NYC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded project focused on quality measurement at the point of care. Prior to this he established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the NYC Department of Health, charged with providing epidemiologic and statistical expertise and data for decision making to the health department.

He did his graduate training at the Harvard School of Public Health and Yale Medical School, internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. He was one of the lead investigators in the outbreaks of West Nile Virus and anthrax in New York City, and among the first developers of real-time electronic disease surveillance systems nationwide.

Related Articles
On April 11, 2011 post on Life as a Healthcare CIO, John Halamka provided his take on “What can we expect from Farzad?” Mostashari.

On April 8, 2011, Christine LaFave Grace and Joseph Conn wrote a story for Modern Healthcare titled “Healthcare leaders hail selection of Mostashari to lead ONC.”

Joseph Conn of Modern Healthcare did an interview with Farzad Mostishari at the HIMSS11 conference in Orlando on February 21, 2011.Mary Mosquera, of Government Health IT, reported on April 8, 2011 that Mostashari “has been named the National Coordinator for Health IT, stepping in to the role at a critical juncture in the adoption of electronic health records and the meaningful use program. He has been the deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the ONC.”

Mosquera, of Government Health IT also did a sidebar story April 8, 2011, on  “recent comments (from Mostashari that) offer snapshot of ONC leadership.”

Robert Lowes reported for Medscape on April 8, 2011 “New EHR Czar Understands Technology Roll-Out.”

Looking Back: Related Articles
Related NY Times article, Feb 28, 2009: “How to Make Electronic Medical Records a Reality”
Two articles co-authored by Mostashari in Health Affairs March/April 2009 edition on Electronic Health Records and HITECH:
“A Tale Of Two Large Community Electronic Health Record Extension Projects”
“Collecting And Sharing Data For Population Health: A New Paradigm”
Only abstracts may be available from Health Affairs without registration and payment.