ONC Taps Steven Posnack as Deputy National Coordinator

Change is coming to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) with the announcement that Steven Posnack will serve as the next deputy national coordinator.

The move comes following the news that Jon White, deputy national coordinator, accepted a position as associate chief of staff of research at the Veterans Administration Salt Lake City Healthcare System. After his departure from ONC, he will lead a research program and provide medical care to veterans. White will work with Posnack to ensure the transition occurs “in a seamless manner,” according to the ONC.

Steven Posnack

Posnack currently serves as executive director of the ONC Office of Technology. He has held a leadership position at the agency for 14 years, including nine in ONC’s policy offices.

“His unique experience and depth of knowledge will provide steady direction for our ONC team, continuity for our stakeholders and vision for the work ahead of us,” the national coordinator, Don Rucker, M.D., wrote in an email to ONC staff.

Posnack led the creation of the Interoperability Standards Advisory, which coordinates the identification and awareness of interoperability standards and specifications to address the interoperability needs for clinical, public health and research purposes. He also worked on the redesign of ONC’s Certified Health IT Product List, created the Interoperability Proving Ground and developed the C-CDA Scorecard.

Posnack’s extensive background in interoperability standards could help boost work surrounding ONC’s proposed rule on information blocking.

The proposal has received a lot of pushback from organizations like the Electronic Health Record Association, which wrote in a letter that the rule lacks clarity and disrupts the flow of developers.

Along with the proposed rule, organizations are concerned about ONC’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), which aims to support the full interoperability of health information from network-to-network. Both the American Hospital Association and Sequoia Project said TEFCA could stifle the pace of innovation.

Posnack will continue in his role as Rucker and ONC search for a replacement.

The move is effective Monday, August 19.

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