Blumenthal Out, Mostashari In

Dr. Farzad Mostashari is the new national coordinator for health IT as of today, according to a one-sentence announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services. He replaces Dr. David Blumenthal, who returns to the faculty at Harvard University.

Mostashari has been with ONC since July 2009. He previously was assistant commissioner for the primary care project at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He also headed the NYC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the city's health department.

An epidemiologist by trade, Mostashari is a Harvard School of Public Health and Yale Medical School graduate who did a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also was a lead investigator in the West Nile virus outbreak and the anthrax scare. HHS says he pioneered development of national real-time electronic disease surveillance systems.

The Friday announcement seems to have come together quickly. The first sentence of Mostashari's bio on the HHS website lists him as the national coordinator, but the second sentence still describes him as deputy national coordinator for programs and policies. It is unclear whether he is serving in both roles or whether the discrepancy was overlooked.

HHS announced his appointment by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Twitter and on the ONC website. The website announcement contained no more details than the Twitter announcement, which was limited to 140 characters.

Blumenthal posted what turned out to be a farewell message Thursday on the ONC Health Buzz Blog, writing about "the extraordinary contributions of our Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs) and their many workgroups." He said nothing about it being his last day, although he announced in February that he would leave sometime this spring.