The U.S. Health and Human Services filled three new key technology roles this month. The agency has drawn from the private sector, the White House and within the department for top artificial intelligence and digital technology jobs within its Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy division.

• Alicia Rouault, who previously served in the White House's United States Digital Service, will become the ASTP's associate deputy assistant secretary for technology policy and chief technology officer. 
• Dr. Meghan Dierks, former chief data officer at Komodo Health, will serve as its new chief artificial intelligence officer. 
• Kristen Honey, previously the chief data scientist in the Office of Science and Medicine, will now serve as ASTP's chief data officer.

WHY IT MATTERS

HHS has brought Dierks back to the agency not only as ASTP's CAIO but as a leader in its Office of the Chief Technology Officer. 

At Komodo, Dierks led the development and evaluation of AI-powered healthcare analytics tools for life sciences companies, healthcare practitioners and patient advocacy groups, as well as the company's data strategy and governance. According to her new agency profile, her accolades include advancing generative AI applications based on foundational language models, knowledge graph-based machine learning and Bayesian reasoning systems.

Rouault is taking the helm of ASTP's Office of the Chief Technology Officer as the first person to fill that role since Ed Simcox left the position in 2020. Simcox temporarily filled the role when HHS reassigned CIO Beth Killoran to the Office of the Surgeon General in 2018. 

As the agency CTO, Rouault is responsible for driving the mission of the top federal health agency by fostering innovation in technology through data, digital services and public-private partnerships.

According to her ASTP leadership profile, Rouault was previously with the White House’s U.S. Digital Service, which responded to state governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. She directed the service's financial hardship program, which spanned five agencies. Before the public health emergency, she led a nationwide implementation of Unemployment Insurance Modernization under the American Rescue Plan.

Honey, who joined HHS in 2018, previously served in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Before OMB, she led the open data portfolio at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2015 to 2017, according to her biography page.

As ASTP's CDO, she will lead data initiatives "across all HHS divisions to guide Departmental decisions, inform actions, and deliver results with a bias for action." 

Honey most recently heralded datathons, spearheaded the HHS Human-Centered Design program and more. Of note, person-centered, inclusive design is the first priority of the Federal Health IT Strategy that HHS and ASTP finalized in October.

FedScoop reported that Dierks started Dec. 30 and Rouault and Honey moved into their roles this week.

THE LARGER TREND

Last July, HHS announced a broad reorganization of its AI, cybersecurity and IT functions, which included renaming the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to ASTP and moving the 405(d) Program to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response's Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection to advance the agency's approach to cybersecurity.

In it, the top federal health IT agency took on more responsibilities and planned to reinstitute the CTO role that Rouault has now filled and build out the new CAIO role that Dierks has taken.

The reorganization "builds on those capabilities to advance all our strategic, mission-focused technology, data, and AI policies and activities," Andrea Palm, HHS deputy secretary, said in an announcement at the time.

ON THE RECORD

”I am incredibly proud to have shepherded ASTP to its next chapter guiding the department in technology, AI and data strategy," Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi told Healthcare IT News by email on Wednesday. "I am therefore excited to see three accomplished experts like Alicia, Kristen and Meghan join ASTP to help drive that broader vision for HHS."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.