McColm, Esposito Appointed to GAO HIT Advisory Committee

Denni McColm, CIO at Citizens Memorial Healthcare, and Tina Esposito, VP of Information and Technology Innovation at Advocate Health Care, were among the 15 healthcare leaders appointed to the Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s new Health IT Advisory Committee.

The committee, which was established as part of the 21^st Century Cures Act, will provide recommendations to the National Coordinator for HIT on policies, standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria relating to the implementation of a health IT infrastructure that advances the electronic access, exchange, and use of health information.

Members appointed to 1-year terms include:

• Michael Adcock, Executive Director of the Center for Telehealth at the University of Mississippi Medical Center
• Terrence O’Malley, MD, a geriatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Nursing and Therapy Center North End
• Carolyn Petersen, patient advocate and senior editor for Mayo Clinic’s health information website
• Sasha TerMaat, Director at Epic, and Executive Committee Chair for the EHR Association
• Andrew Truscott, Managing Director for Health and Public Service at Accenture

In addition to McColm, the other 2-year term appointees include:

• John Kansky, President and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, and member of the Board of Directors for the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative
• Brett Oliver, MD, CMIO for Baptist Health, and a practicing part-time family physician with Baptist Family Physicians of Scott County
• Raj Ratwani, MA, PhD, is Acting Center Director and Scientific Director of the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare within MedStar Health, and Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
• Denise Webb, CIO of Marshfield Clinic Health System and CEO of Marshfield Clinic Information Services, Inc.

Joining Esposito as 3-year appointees are:

• Christina Caraballo, MBA, Director of Healthcare Transformation at Get Real Health
• Brad Gescheider, MBA, Senior Director of Provider and Payer Solutions at PatientsLikeMe
• Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD, MHS, Associate CMIO at University of Utah Health, and Assistant Professor, University of Utah Department of Biomedical Informatics
• Sheryl Turney, Med, Senior Director of All-Payer Claims Database Analytics and Data Policy and Administration at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield

“It is extremely valuable to have a range of perspectives and expertise in helping the government address challenges related to health information technology,” said Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO. Appointed members will serve terms of one, two, and three years, and may be reappointed for subsequent 3-year terms.

Seeking to provide a range of perspectives to help the government address health IT needs, GAO has appointed several notable health IT leaders to its first Advisory Committee.