The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has named Farzad Mostashari, MD, to replace David Blumenthal, MD April 8 as national coordinator for health information technology.

Mostashari had been serving as Blumenthal’s deputy since July 2009.

Previously, Mostashari served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as assistant commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he facilitated the adoption of prevention-oriented health information technology by more than 1,500 providers in underserved communities.

Mostashari also led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded NYC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded project focused on quality measurement at the point of care. Prior to this he established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the NYC Department of Health, charged with providing epidemiologic and statistical expertise and data for decision making to the health department.

Mostashari did his graduate training at the Harvard School of Public Health and Yale Medical School, internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service.

According to ONC, Mostashari was one of the lead investigators in the outbreaks of West Nile Virus and anthrax in New York City, and among the first developers of real-time electronic disease surveillance systems nationwide.

Blumenthal served as ONC’s National Coordinator since March 2009. 

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