The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has appointed Dr. Thomas Keane as the agency’s assistant secretary for technology policy (ASTP) and the national coordinator for health information technology.
ASTP, according to HHS, is the lead agency charged with formulating the Federal government’s health IT strategy and coordinating Federal health IT policies, standards, programs, and investments.
The national coordinator position was created in 2004 via executive order and was codified in the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
HHS said in announcing the appointment that Keane previously served at ASTP and as a senior advisor to the agency’s deputy secretary.
“Among other duties, he was an administrator of the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund and lead the development of the AHRQ National Nursing Home COVID Action Network,” the agency said.
Keane’s resume features stints as an interventional radiologist and a “finite element software developer and enterprise software engineer,” according to HHS.