The Social Security Administration named James Winn, executive counselor to the commissioner, as special advisor for health IT. He takes over the position from Jim Borland, who oversaw the agency's pioneering use of the Nationwide Health Information Network.
Borland will now become associate commissioner for electronic services and strategic information in the Office of Disability, Adjudication and Review, a new position he started April 19 to help advance modernization of SSA's hearing process to reduce the backlog of disability claims, said William Martinez, deputy to the special advisor for health IT.
Winn became involved in health IT in helping form Data Use and Reciprocal Support Agreements (DURSA), HIE master agreements that smooth business participation in the NHIN. He has since participated in making agency decisions about health IT, Martinez said.
Winn also serves as SSA's executive representative on the NHIN Coordinating Committee, the public/private body which governs the NHIN.
Borland led SSA through its ground-breaking work in becoming the first federal agency to mount a production version of the NHIN. In that project it partnered with Richmond, Va.-based heath information exchange MedVirginia to transmit the electronic health records of disability applicants to SSA benefits officers, substantially accelerating the claims process.
In its venture with MedVirginia, SSA used the Connect software suite, an open source implementation of the NHIN developed by federal healthcare agencies. SSA's Medical Evidence Gathering and Analysis through Health IT (MEGAHIT) system received, analyzed and processed the received data.
Jean McGraw, MedVirginia's chief operating officer, said she was confident that the "strong relationship" with SSA would continue. In fact, MedVirginia is "in the process of bringing another major hospital system into the MEGAHIT program through the NHIN," she said.
In February, SSA announced a set of contracts with 15 additional health information exchanges, providers and health IT firms to establish the application on a regional basis throughout the country.
Borland will maintain his membership on the Health IT Policy Committee, which advises the Health and Human Services Department on the adoption of meaningful use of electronic health records.
