Who Will Guide the Ship at ONC?

“He brought a passion using electronic health records to improve health, and he also brought experience with him of successful use with [EHRs] from the Boston area,” Bruno added. “He put in place a group of folks that could begin implementing that in a nationwide way.”

Robert Tennant, senior policy advisor to the Medical Group Management Association, called Blumenthal an “articulate and passionate advocate for physician practice adoption of HIT.” He will leave his post as national coordinator having been an important catalyst for the transformation of the nation's health care delivery system, Tennant said, adding, “We are hopeful that Dr. Blumenthal's successor will retain his policy of direct outreach to the physician practice community and develop and implement the policies and programs necessary to facilitate the continued adoption of HIT in these care settings.”

Jeffrey Bauer, Ph.D., a Chicago-based independent health IT consultant who has been critical of the HITECH law, said he was not surprised that Blumenthal would leave. From Bauer’s perspective, HITECH actually slowed down health IT adoption as the industry paused for two years while the meaningful use regulations were drawn up. “I think very highly of Dr. Blumenthal. He is very accomplished in health IT, and I think he went into this idealistically, but he stepped into an impossible situation,” he said. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”