HL7 International Appoints ONC’s Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, to the Board of Directors

Health Level Seven International (HL7), the global authority for interoperability and standards in healthcare information technology with members in 55 countries, recently announced the appointment of Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), to the HL7 board of directors.

HL7 CEO Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, said “More than ever, HL7 recognizes the importance of collaboration with the ONC to further the goal of achieving nationwide standards-based interoperability. HL7 is fortunate to have Dr. Fridsma's participation in its board of directors. Not only will this help support the mission of both organizations, we also believe that his experience in healthcare informatics will drive our mutual objective of improved patient care.”

Fridsma served on the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) board of directors from 2005-2008, and was appointed to the HIT Standards Committee in 2009. He resigned from the HIT Standards Committee when he joined ONC. Prior to his position at ONC, Fridsma also had a clinical practice at the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale and taught in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University.

Fridsma completed his medical training at the University of Michigan in 1990 and his PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford University in 2003. His research interests include the development of computational tools to study patient safety, clinical work processes, and methods to improve model-driven standards development processes.

“I am looking forward to working with HL7 as a member of the board of directors,” said Fridsma. “I believe this will provide an opportunity to strengthen collaboration around shared goals that HL7 and the federal government have to improve patient care through the use of interoperable health information exchange.”

Source: Health Level Seven International