DR. BILL BRAITHWAITE

Independent Health Care Policy Consultant

Dr. Bill Braithwaite has dedicated his entire career to improving the quality and efficiency of health care for patients and practitioners. He was an author of the Administrative Simplification Subtitle of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and a major contributor to the subsequent regulations setting federal standards for transactions, code sets, identifiers, security, and privacy of personal health information. He staffed the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) to produce its June 2004 report, "Revolutionizing Health Care Through Information Technology". He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the ANSI Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and the Treasurer of Health Level Seven (HL7).

A pioneer in the field of medical informatics, Dr. Braithwaite envisioned a critical role for computers in clinical practice while a medical student at the University of Chicago. After graduation, residency, and military service, he followed that vision to get a doctorate in medical information science from the University of California, San Francisco.

Until 1996, he was associate professor and head of the Section on Medical Informatics, which he established at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. On a health policy sabbatical with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee health staff in 1993-94, he was able to promote his vision by working with an industry coalition to develop the legislative language that became the Administrative Simplification Subtitle of HIPAA. In 1994, he joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue development in the area of health information standards as senior advisor on health information policy in the Office of the Secretary. After seven years at HHS, he served from 2001 to 2003 as national director of HIPAA Advisory Services in the Washington, D.C., office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and from 2005 to 2006 as senior vice president and chief medical officer at the eHealth Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to driving improvement in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information technology.

Between full-time jobs and now, he practices as an independent consultant in health information policy and strategic planning. Dr. Braithwaite has an eclectic background, from practicing medicine as a submarine doctor to teaching epidemiology, biostatistics, and medical informatics to medical and graduate students and teaching practicing physicians to improve their clinical practice with information technology. He has done laboratory research, health services research, and research and development of computer-based tools for clinical and research environments. Dr. Braithwaite has managed large and small organizations, from an international computer user group (as president) to a medical school department (as acting chairman) and has been a leader in strategic planning for networking and health information technology at all levels.

He has been an active member of the American Medical Informatics Association (and its parent organizations) since 1969 and served on its board of directors. He has received a number of awards in recognition of his contributions to the field, including election by his peers to Fellowship in the American College of Medical Informatics, the President's Award from the American Medical Informatics Association, the Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service from HHS, and the second Louis W. Sullivan Award from WEDI, which "recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves through their leadership, vision, and achievements in advancing the overall quality and efficiency of health care.”