Karen M. Bell, MD, Is New Chair of CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) announced the appointment of Karen M. Bell, MD, as chair of the CCHIT, effective April 26. Bell, most recently senior vice president of health information technology services at Masspro, replaces retiring chair Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, who led the commission since its inception in 2004.  

Prior to her tenure at Masspro, the federally contracted Quality Improvement Organization within Massachusetts, Bell was director of the Office of Health Information Technology Adoption and acting deputy of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), Health and Human Services and was ONC’s representative on the CCHIT’s board of commissioners from 2006 to 2008.

She also has served as division director for the quality improvement group of the office of standards and quality for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and medical director of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, among other positions.  A graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, Bell has experience as an internal medicine practitioner and as an associate professor at the University of Rochester and clinical instructor at Harvard University School of Medicine.  

Bell’s appointment comes after a five-month search aided by the firm Egon Zehnder International, Chicago.  

Source: Certification Commission for Health Information Technology