The Division of Well being and Human Providers on Tuesday disclosed that Thomas Keane has been tapped to function the company’s prime expertise coverage official and nationwide coordinator for well being IT.
Keane, a radiologist with earlier expertise at HHS, is the second individual to function assistant secretary for expertise coverage after the function was established beneath the Biden administration. In a post to LinkedIn on Tuesday, ASTP mentioned Keane’s “management will play a pivotal function in shaping the way forward for #HealthIT and HHS’s expertise technique.”
Based on his bio on ASTP’s web site, Keane beforehand labored within the workplace he now leads and as a senior adviser to the deputy secretary of HHS. In these roles, Keane was a part of the division’s COVID-19 response as an administrator of the Supplier Aid Fund and led the Company for Healthcare Analysis and High quality’s Nationwide Nursing Residence COVID Motion Community.
Keane joins the workplace lower than a yr after it obtained its new identify and duties to develop and oversee the company’s information, expertise and AI coverage. In July 2024, HHS announced that the nationwide coordinator on the time — Micky Tripathi — would tackle the brand new assistant secretary title, and the division’s chief expertise, information and AI officers can be moved beneath that newly minted arm.
In consequence, the present Workplace of the Nationwide Coordinator, which already oversaw requirements for the trade of well being information, was renamed to replicate its coverage function — first to ASTP/ONC and now simply ASTP.
It’s not but clear whether or not all the roles beneath ASTP will keep put, nevertheless. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has launched a departmentwide restructuring and a large-scale reduction-in-force to align with President Donald Trump’s marching orders on reshaping and shrinking the federal authorities.
Keane provides to the rising cadre of expertise and IT leaders on the division beneath the Trump administration. Along with officially listing Palantir alum Clark Minor as HHS chief data officer on-line, the division additionally lately up to date the listing of officials that report back to him.
Amongst these adjustments, Kevin M. Duvall was listed as deputy CIO, changing La Monte Yarborough. Duvall has served in a number of roles at HHS, together with CTO and CAIO of the Administration for Kids and Households and as performing CIO of the Superior Analysis Initiatives Company for Well being, generally often known as ARPA-H.
In a LinkedIn post in regards to the transfer, Duvall mentioned that because the deputy he can be “the senior profession official for expertise at HHS, and work throughout to assist modernization.”
