The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has named a new leader at the agency formerly known as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
WHY IT MATTERS
Dr. Thomas Keane, who has experience as both a clinician and a technology developer, will serve concurrently as the second Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP) at HHS and the ninth National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
He has experience at ASTP, having served there in addition to his work as senior advisor to the deputy secretary of HHS.
Previously, Dr. Keane – who trained as an interventional radiologist – worked to administer the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund. He also led development of the AHRQ National Nursing Home COVID Action Network during the pandemic.
Keane's technology experience includes work as a finite element software developer and enterprise software engineer.
He has experience at both Weill Cornell Medical Center and Johns Hopkins, and has served as a clinician at the imaging IT company IntelliRad.
THE LARGER TREND
The former ONC was reorganized into ASTP during a major department-wide restructuring about a year ago, during the Biden administration.
Since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, there have been even more widespread and significant changes across all of HHS, including elimination of entire departments.
ASTP – which is tasked with "adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide, standards-based health information exchange" to improve healthcare delivery – has not been one of them.
But there may still be changes afoot for the agency. The recent FY26 HHS budget proposal calls for $130 million to establish a new chief technology officer for healthcare, whose purview would include both ASTP and the Office of the Chief Information Officer.
Both OCIO and ASTP "will lead and coordinate HHS' cybersecurity and health information technology efforts, including through policy development, and standards coordination, and protecting data assets and IT systems," according to the budget.
The office of the CTO will also continue some long-standing work from ONC/ASTP, officials said – continue implementing a nationwide technical floor for healthcare interoperability through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, to promote network-to-network health information sharing and reduce barriers to communication.
ON THE RECORD
The HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association was among the first industry groups to comment on the new appointment.
"The EHR Association congratulates Dr. Thomas Keane on his appointment as Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy at HHS and National Coordinator for Health IT," said Leigh Burchell (Altera Digital Health), chair of the EHR Association Executive Committee, in a statement. (Read our recent interview with Burchell here.)
"Dr. Keane brings important expertise in health policy to the role. We’re pleased that his selection reflects HHS’ commitment to putting leadership in place that both recognizes the criticality of the ‘coordinator’ responsibilities and understands from prior experience the many complex use cases related to health data interoperability that the agency is tasked with supporting. We look forward to collaborating with Dr. Keane and ASTP to further the digitization of healthcare and explore regulatory refinements."
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
