The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on April 8 named Farzad Mostashari, MD, to replace David Blumenthal, MD as national coordinator for health information technology. Mostashari, who has been serving as Blumenthal's deputy since July 2009, received a warm welcome from stakeholders.

The announcement did not come unexpectedly. Blumenthal announced in February he would be leaving his position as head of ONC sometime this spring.

At the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference Feb. 22 in Orlando, Mostashari hinted at his potential for taking over the role at an ONC Town Hall meeting, when he said, “In a sense, David is handing the mantle back to us.”

[See related story: Blumenthal's deputy: 'David is handing the mantle back to us'.]

“With David’s departure, this is a time to analyze if we are on the right track,” Mostashari said. “Most would agree, we're on the right track, but we need to keep moving ahead and that's what we intend to do. We need to constantly focus on improving and doing a better job.”

Mostashari comes to the position with plenty of experience. Prior to his stint at ONC, he served as assistant commissioner for the primary care information project for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he facilitated the adoption of prevention-oriented health information technology by more than 1,500 providers in underserved communities.

Also in New York City, Mostashari led the Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services. He did his graduate training at the Harvard School of Public Health and Yale Medical School, internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Stakeholders praise Mostashari's appointment.

HIMSS leaders noted “Dr. Mostashari’s leadership on a number of issues, including provider adoption and associated certification requirements, interoperability and health information exchange, and efforts to engage all communities in driving the innovation that is necessary for transforming healthcare.

"We are very comfortable with the directions he advocates," HIMSS said in a statement.

Matt Murray, MD, of Digitized Medicine called Mostashari "articulate and energetic."

Brian Ahier, author of the blog "Healthcare, Technology & Government 2.0" and ardent ONC policy follower said, "This is no time for doubt or uncertainty, and Farzad will provide the continuity that is so badly needed."

John Halamka, CIO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, said, Mostashari "has great operational experience" from his tenure as assistant commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he worked with 1,500 providers from underserved communities.

"Farzad's combination of policy knowledge, familiarity with the needs of small providers, and passion for improving health with IT tools will serve the country well," Halamka said. "From personal experience, I know that his vision for creating decision support systems and data driven quality improvement resulted in improvements to several EHR products and innovations like the PopHealth."  

Blumenthal leaves ONC's helm after serving since March 2009. In a memo to his staff last February, he said he would be returning to his "academic home" as was planned from the start of his ONC tenure. During his two years as the federal government's health IT chief, he was responsible for launching one of the most ambitious federal efforts to advance healthcare IT adoption in history, as was mandated by the HITECH Act in February 2009.

Mostashari will step into a diplomatic quagmire, as some industry heavyweights are calling for a delay of meaningful use Stage 2 requirements, expected to begin in 2013 under the HITECH Act incentive program.

Tony Trenkle, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Office of e-Health Standards, responsible for co-writing meaningful use regulations with the ONC, has said there is no way that Stage 2 will be delayed.

[See where Mostashari will pick up where Blumenthal left off: CMS has paid out $37M in EHR incentives so far.] 

Follow Diana Manos on Twitter @DManos_IT_News.