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A rare glimpse into the creation of national healthcare IT policy
You could blink twice and miss the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. A cluster of 10 cubicles, some open and others displaying vain attempts to create a little privacy, are wedged into the south end of the fifth floor of HHS' cavernous Hubert H. Humphrey Building in Washington, nearly indistinguishable from surrounding turf occupied by the Office of Audit Resolution and Cost Policy and the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.
The staff phone list contains only 20 names, including an office manager, several people to handle scheduling and travel, and-for a seven-week stint-me.
As small a crew as it was, there wasn't enough room to accommodate this upstart office. To get to my space and those of several other staffers amid the cubicle colony, I had to walk 40 paces west, take a right turn and go another 25, squeezing in between federal employees working for the Office of Information Resources Management.
The only room with actual floor-to-ceiling drywall and a door was occupied by the national IT coordinator, David Brailer, when he wasn't on the road getting the word out about the IT challenge-which was often. From May to mid-December 2004, there were 266 requests for him to speak and 64 requests for him to visit a site where IT was going gangbusters. Brailer...