Washington, D.C. – Dr. Farzad Mostashari, the National Coordinator for Health IT at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will join the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform as a Visiting Fellow, Vice President and Director of Economic Studies Ted Gayer announced today.
In collaboration with Brookings’ Initiative on Value and Innovation in Health Care within the Engelberg Center, Dr. Mostashari plans to work on a range of topics related to helping clinicians improve care and patient health through health IT, with a focus on small practice transformation by developing innovative payment models that can better support these types of practices. His work will include expanding the reach of the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Learning Network, a Brookings-Dartmouth project that provides participating organizations the tools necessary to successfully implement accountable care, with a particular emphasis on care transformation involving smaller practices. In addition, he will work on continuing to expand the use of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record adoption and health information exchange to support better medical practice.
“We look forward to Farzad’s extensive health care experience and expertise in using health IT to gain efficiencies and better care in ACOs and elsewhere in the healthcare system,” said Engelberg Center Director Alice Rivlin.
“While clinicians have the expertise and commitment to lead needed reforms in health care in the United States, they are facing a challenging and rapidly changing environment today. We welcome Farzad in joining our efforts to identify and implement the most promising reforms to help them improve health care and the health of Americans,” said Director of the Health Care Value and Innovation Initiative, Dr. Mark B. McClellan.
Dr. Mostashari previously served as Principal Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) at HHS. In his four years at ONC, he has been integrally involved in leading a broad range of initiatives to promote more effective use of health IT to improve care. Prior to his service at ONC, Dr. Mostashari served as Assistant Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene where he designed, created and led the national model for Health IT Extension and implemented novel pay-for-prevention programs based on clinical outcomes. While there, he also provided technical assistance and practice redesign to 1500 providers in independent practices, and focused on the subsequent design and implementation of the regional extension centers serving over 140,000 primary care providers nationwide. Dr. Mostashari has also served at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).