Congressional leaders have appointed Steve Ready, CIO of Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Healthcare, Steven Lane, MD, clinical informatics director with Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, and biotech entrepreneur and surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, to a 25-member committee that will advise the Trump administration on health IT.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appointed Mr. Ready, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., named Dr. Lane and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., selected Dr. Soon-Schiong, according to Politico.
The Health IT Advisory Committee is authorized by the 21st Century Cures Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in December 2016. Congressional leaders have authority to name eight of the committee's members, while the HHS secretary appoints three and comptroller general of the U.S. Government Accountability Office names the rest.
This advisory committee will address issues related to interoperability, privacy and security of health information, and engage stakeholders to identify priorities for standards adoption.
Mr. Ready's career with Norton began in 1998. Throughout his tenure he contributed to the system's Epic EHR implementation and served as associate vice president of enterprise services before taking on his current position.
Dr. Lane is a practicing family physician and champion for information exchange, as he's helped Sutter develop a range of programs to access and use external data. His career in health IT began in 1990, and he later served as a physician lead during Sutter Health's ambulatory EHR implementation in 1999.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is founder of capital investment firm Nant Capital, health technology development company NantWorks and personalized medicine subsidiary NantHealth, based in Culver City, Calif. The billionaire physician has stakes in media corporations, such as Tronc — parent to the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. He has also spearheaded a cancer moonshot initiative — separate from the effort affiliated with former Vice President Joe Biden — named Cancer Breakthroughs 2020, in 2016 with his firm NantHealth.