Dive Brief:
- National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Karen DeSalvo has been nominated to be assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on a permanent basis. DeSalvo has served in the position on an interim basis since August, brought on to assist with official management of the Ebola outbreak.
- Should DeSalvo be confirmed by the Senate, she will step down as national coordinator at ONC to assume the HHS role. She will continue to serve at ONC until that time.
- DeSalvo joined the ONC in January of 2014, making hers the shortest tenure of the last five occupants of the role.
Dive Insight:
This isn't a huge surprise, not least because DeSalvo has already been acting in this role for almost a year. As Healthcare Dive previously reported, there's also been some industry buzz that this might be coming down the pipeline.