Healthcare Informatics' Exclusive Interview: Todd Park, CTO, HHS

Can you commit that you’ll help providers with regard to making sure that the requirements and mandates that come out of HHS will match those coming out of ONC [the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology], wherever possible?
We are very focused on coordination across the department, to make sure that the pieces fit together; that’s obviously our goal. I’m constantly talking with Dr. Mostashari [Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology] at ONC, with CMS [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services], and with [others in] our office; it’s a team [across HHS], and we know that it’s actually in the combination of the efforts is where gains will be made.

What would your advice be for providers right now, at a time of intense change in healthcare?
While it’s tumultuous, it’s also a time of great opportunity. And it’s a very exciting time to be an innovator in healthcare, precisely because it’s a time of disruptive change. Because the system does have to change to bring us to where it has to be in terms of outcomes, health [status], and affordability. And disruptive times are the most exciting times for change. And I look forward to providers to lead the way as innovators, as we lead to a better and better healthcare system. So I would say, seize the moment!