DeSalvo Appointed National Coordinator For Health IT

Karen DeSalvo, MD, has been named the new national coordinator for health information technology.

DeSalvo is currently New Orleans' health commissioner and senior health policy advisor to Mitch Landrieu, the city's mayor. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius emphasized DeSalvo's efforts to modernize New Orleans’s healthcare system and her pivotal role in rebuilding the city's public health infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of that natural disaster, she pointed out, DeSalvo augmented the city's primary care medical homes for the low-income and uninsured people who were most affected by the storm. As New Orleans health commissioner, Sec Sebelius added, DeSalvo integrated health IT into key aspects of the city's healthcare delivery system, including its newest public hospital.