Palantir Technologies, the data analytics company that powers the COVID-19 data-reporting platform for HHS Protect, hired Bill Kassler, MD, as the company's first U.S. government chief medical officer.
Dr. Kassler most recently served as deputy chief health officer and CMO for government HHS at IBM Watson Health, according to a May 3 CNBC report. Prior to joining IBM, Dr. Kassler was CMO for the New England Region of CMS and state health officer for the New Hampshire department of health and human services.
As Palantir's first government CMO, Mr. Kassler told the network that he plans to bring his expertise in clinical care and public health to the role. He pinpointed three areas of tech focus for the company: patching supply chain issues, managing localized surges of cases and combatting racial and ethnic disparities.
Palantir works with the federal government to power the HHS COVID-19 data dashboard as well as HHS' COVID-19 vaccine tracking system. The company filed to go public in August 2020.
In addition to COVID-19 data support, Palantir also works with the National Institutes of Health, which recently began using the company's platform to merge data sets from 50 different academic groups for research.