Leadership Forum
David Blumenthal, MD, MPP
National Coordinator
Office of the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, was appointed on March 20, 2009, as the Obama Administration’s choice to serve as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. As National Coordinator, Dr. Blumenthal leads the implementation of a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected health information technology infrastructure.
Dr. Blumenthal previously served as a physician and as the director of the Institute for Health Policy at The Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston, Massachusetts. He was also the Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.
From 1987-1991 he was Senior Vice President at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a 720-bed Harvard teaching hospital. From 1981 to 1987 he was Executive Director of the Center for Health Policy and Management and Lecturer on Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. During the late 1970s, Dr. Blumenthal was a professional staff member on Senator Edward Kennedy’s Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research. He served as chief health adviser to the Dukakis Presidential campaign and a senior health adviser to the Obama for President Campaign.
He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on several editorial boards, including the American Journal of Medicine and Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. He is also a National Correspondent for The New England Journal of Medicine. He serves on advisory committees to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Social Insurance, the Open Society Institute and other foundations.
Dr. Blumenthal was the founding chairman of Academy Health (formerly the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy), the national organization of health services researchers. He is also Director of the Harvard University Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement. He is recipient of the Distinguished Investigator Award from Academy Health, the national organization of health services researchers, and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Rush University for the Health Sciences. He has served as a trustee of the University of Chicago Health System and currently serves as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine).
His research interests include the dissemination of health information technology, quality management in health care, the determinants of physician behavior, access to health services, and the extent and consequences of academic-industrial relationships in the health sciences.