Dr. Karen DeSalvo, who has served as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for less than a year, is leaving her position to aid in public health efforts to contain Ebola in the United States.
On Oct. 23, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) announced that effective immediately, Dr. DeSalvo would serve as acting assistant secretary for health at the Health and Human Services department.
Dr. Karen DeSalvo
Dr. DeSalvo will work with HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell on “pressing public health issues, including becoming a part of the department’s team responding to Ebola,” according to Peter Ashkenaz, an ONC spokesman.
Lisa Lewis, ONC’s chief operating officer, will take the reins at ONC as acting national coordinator. But Dr. DeSalvo will continue to be available to the ONC team to support their work, Mr. Ashkenaz said.
Before coming to HHS, Dr. DeSalvo served as health commissioner for the City of New Orleans, where she helped modernize the city’s health department and helped establish a public hospital. Before working for the city, she was a professor of medicine and vice dean for community affairs and health policy at Tulane University, New Orleans.
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