Today it has been announced that David Brailer has resigned his position as Head of the Office of the National Co-ordinator for Health Information Technology.
It seems to me this is a very significant loss, given the steady hand he has provided in the developments in this very important area in the United States.
There is no doubt the strategy he has developed to foster the use of Health IT has been largely sound and consistent with the constraints the operate in the US Healthcare sector. Inevitably some strands of the approach may need refinement going forward - especially in the area of the quality of the client EHRs that are to be implemented in physician offices and how best this transition can be managed and funded - but overall the approach of starting small and growing and linking as competencies build seems fundamentally sound.
Additionally his emphasis on the use of pragmatic proven standards -based on the CHI work undertaken in the period before his appointment - was also rational and appropriate.
However, I suspect his biggest contribution was the work he undertook in the year prior to his appointment where he as able to convince the West Wing and President Bush of the importance of the overall initiative and the potentially huge opportunity cost of inaction.
It is a pity Australia has not yet thrown up a similar individual who can weave the same magic on our Prime Minister. We need this prophet badly just at the moment!
David
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