In a new role that will put his health IT expertise to work improving the performance of small physician practices, former National Coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, will join the Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform as a visiting fellow.

As he works with Brookings' Initiative on Value and Innovation in Health Care, Mostashari will focus on topics related to helping clinicians improve care and patient health through health IT, with a focus on small practice transformation by developing innovative payment models that can better support those types of practices, say Brookings officials.

His task sheet will include looking for ways to expand the reach of the Accountable Care Organization Learning Network – a collaboration between Brookings and Dartmouth that develops tools to successfully implement accountable care strategies – with a particular emphasis on care transformation involving smaller practices.

Mostashari will also work on continuing to expand the use of secure, private and accurate systems of electronic health record adoption and health information exchange to support better medical practice.

"We look forward to Farzad's extensive healthcare experience and expertise in using health IT to gain efficiencies and better care in ACOs and elsewhere in the healthcare system," said Engelberg Center Director Alice Rivlin, in a press statement.

The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions. For more than 90 years, it has analyzed current and emerging issues and produced new ideas to drive positive change.

Prior to his four-year stint at ONC, Mostashari served as assistant commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where he designed, created and led the national model for Health IT Extension and implemented novel pay-for-prevention programs based on clinical outcomes. While there, he also provided technical assistance and practice redesign to 1,500 providers in independent practices, and focused on the subsequent design and implementation of the regional extension centers serving over 140,000 primary care providers nationwide.

"While clinicians have the expertise and commitment to lead needed reforms in healthcare in the U.S., they are facing a challenging and rapidly changing environment today," said Mark B. McClellan, MD, director of the Health Care Value and Innovation Initiative, in a statement. "We welcome Farzad in joining our efforts to identify and implement the most promising reforms to help them improve health care and the health of Americans."

Brookings also announced Thursday that Darshak Sanghavi, MD, recent chief of pediatric cardiology and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, has joined Engelberg’s Health Care Value and Innovation Initiative as the Richard Merkin Fellow.

Sanghavi’s work at Brookings will focus on accelerating clinically-based innovation in healthcare delivery using novel approaches, including new media technologies to reach frontline clinicians, such as doctors and nurses, officials say. His work leans strongly on combining clinical innovation with strong public engagement.

"In order to make true delivery reform possible, we have to have not only input, but leadership from, clinicians who are in the field – and we need to do a much better job of supporting their efforts. Darshak is uniquely qualified to help us achieve this goal," said McClellan.

[See also: Mostashari announces his departure from public service with a message]