GAO Appointments to Health IT Policy Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 24, 2013) — Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced three appointments to the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee: David Kotz, PhD, who will fill the position of an expert in privacy and security; Devin Mann, MD, who will fill the position of a researcher; and Troy Seagondollar, RN, who will fill the position of a member of a labor organization representing health care workers.

“In developing policy for health information technology, it’s important to take into account expertise related to privacy and security and to health care research as well as the views of health care workers who are the users of HIT,” Dodaro said. “A number of individuals with backgrounds in these areas responded to GAO’s request for nominations, and I am pleased to announce the addition of today’s new appointments to the HIT Policy Committee.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 established the HIT Policy Committee and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for appointing 13 of its 20 members. The HIT Policy Committee makes recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health IT on the development and adoption of a nationwide health information infrastructure, including standards for the exchange of patient medical information.

Brief biographies of the appointees are provided below:

David Kotz, PhD is a Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He is also the Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Sciences and previously served as the Executive Director of the Dartmouth Institute for Security Technology Studies from 2004–2007. Dr. Kotz’s research has focused on the challenges of applying information technology to health care with an emphasis on privacy and security. He has studied the use of mobile technology, such as smartphones and wearable sensors, and has developed systems and network protocols to protect the integrity of medical information and the privacy of individuals. He has published more than 100 refereed journal and conference papers. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Dr. Kotz will complete the 3-year term of a member who left the committee.

Devin Mann, MD, MS is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine as well as an attending physician at Boston Medical Center. His research has focused on the use of health information technology in improving clinical care, such as developing decision support systems with electronic health records to support advanced medical home care. He serves as the lead physician in ambulatory implementation of an Epic system at Boston Medical Center and co-lead of the Epic optimization project at East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. He previously served as the HIT lead on the Evidence-Based Medicine Task Force of the Society of General Internal Medicine. He received his medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine and his Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research from Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Mann will serve a 3-year term on the committee.

Troy Seagondollar, MSN, RN is Regional Nursing Technology Liaison for the Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Regional Offices and the United Nurses Association of California. He serves as the liaison between multiple groups in discussing business needs and information technology with regard to the clinical impact on the workplace, and he engages staff in using technology to improve patient care while balancing the impact on workflow and scope of professional practice. He is also on the Associate Faculty of Nursing at the University of Phoenix. Mr. Seagondollar’s prior positions include National Coordinator for Kaiser Permanente’s HealthConnect Benefit Realization in the Office of the Labor-Management Partnership of Kaiser Permanente. Mr. Seagondollar holds a Master’s of Science in Nursing with a specialty in informatics from Excelsior College, and is a Certified Informatics Nurse Specialist. Mr. Seagondollar will serve a 3-year term on the committee.

For more information, contact Mary Giffin on GAO’s Health Care Team at (202) 512-7114 or Chuck Young in GAO’s Office of Public Affairs at (202) 512-4800, or visit the GAO Health Care Advisory Committees web page at www.gao.gov/about/hcac. (Note: An earlier version of this press release mistakenly listed the length of terms for Dr. Kotz and Dr. Mann and has been corrected above.)

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