Following is a statement by Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, on resignation of David J. Brailer, National Coordinator for Health IT:

It is with regret that I have accepted Dr. Brailer's resignation as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Over the past two years, David has made significant progress in advancing the President's health IT agenda and laying the building blocks for future progress.

While I will miss him here at HHS, I am pleased that David has agreed to serve as Vice-Chair of the American Health Information Community (The Community), which is charged with making recommendations to the Secretary of HHS to facilitate the development and adoption of standards-based health IT. David has helped the Community identify promising breakthroughs for near-term progress while continuing to move us closer to longer-term health IT goals. David will also continue to serve as a consultant to HHS to help lead the President's health care transparency initiative.

Until a replacement for David's position is announced, the work of the Office of the National Coordinator will continue under the leadership of the four permanent directors of the office.

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AHIMA Applauds Brailer's Leadership, Progress

CHICAGO, April 21--The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) today applauded Dr. David Brailer's leadership as the first National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, citing the unprecedented progress he achieved toward improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare through health information technology (HIT).

"The level and speed of progress made by the Office of the National Coordinator under Dr. David Brailer's leadership has been nothing short of phenomenal," said Linda Kloss, MA, RHIA, AHIMA CEO. "Over the past two years, Dr. Brailer and his staff achieved the type of breakthrough progress the industry had been waiting on for the last 20 years."

Brailer succeeded in bringing the entire healthcare industry together to gather and organize its collective intelligence and begin mapping out a consensus-driven course of action for achieving widespread interoperable exchange of health information. Through extensive outreach and dialogue with all stakeholders, Brailer made unprecedented progress in creating a pragmatic and coordinated approach to fitting together the many technical, legal, political, and operational pieces to the HIT puzzle.

"We are grateful for his leadership and for his dedication to improving the quality of our nation's health information," said Kloss. "The positive impact of his work will be felt for many years to come."

AHIMA honored Brailer with its first annual "Quality Healthcare Through Quality Information" Award in October 2005.

AHIMA is the premier association of health information management (HIM) professionals. AHIMA's 50,000 members are dedicated to the effective management of personal health information needed to deliver quality healthcare to the public. Founded in 1928 to improve the quality of medical records, AHIMA is committed to advancing the HIM profession in an increasingly electronic and global environment through leadership in advocacy, education, certification, and lifelong learning. For more information, go to www.ahima.org.

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