BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After conducting a national search, CommonWell Health Alliance (the "Alliance") today announced its first-ever executive director, Jitin Asnaani. In its search for the Founding Executive Director, the Board sought a candidate who could build on the current CommonWell momentum in nationwide data exchange.
“Jitin has been instrumental in the CommonWell Health Alliance since its founding,” said Rod O’Reilly, President of McKesson Health Solutions. “In addition, his leadership on both the National HIT Standards and Policy Committees, his strategic mindset, and his ability to execute while collaborating with a wide array of stakeholders makes him the perfect executive director for the Alliance at this critical juncture.”
Asnaani comes to CommonWell Health Alliance with experience in both the public and private sector — equipping him with the tools and knowledge to effectively collaborate with government, vendors, providers and other interoperability stakeholders across the care continuum. His diverse work history includes product innovation and interoperability at athenahealth, technical standards development at the Office of National Coordinator (ONC), product management at a health IT startup and strategy consulting at Deloitte.
Most recently, Jitin created athenahealth’s Technology Standards and Policy (TSP) program, which drives and advocates for increased HIT interoperability and, more importantly, real-world interoperation. He led corporate involvement in strategic interoperability initiatives, including Federal Advisory Committees, CommonWell Health Alliance, the Argonaut Project and DirectTrust.org.
Following the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, Asnaani was appointed to the U.S. Department of Health & Humans Services Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT, where he launched and led the Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework to crowd-source technical standards for health information exchange. He grew the S&I Framework to over 350 participating private and public sector organizations, and developed several standards that went on to be incorporated into national Meaningful Use criteria, including Direct Project, Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA), and Laboratory Results Interface (LRI).
Asnaani has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from MIT and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
“I’m honored to work with members whose commitment to 'interoperability in action' has already produced working real-world services that are being deployed throughout the country,” said Jitin Asnaani, who has been active in the Alliance since its inception at HIMSS 2013. “My priority is to keep that momentum going so that interoperability can contribute to improved delivery and outcomes, sooner rather than later.”
Asnaani will lead CommonWell as the organization extends the availability of its services nationwide. CommonWell has more than doubled its membership over the last year, and its 20 members represent roughly 50% of the acute care EHR market and 20% of the ambulatory care EHR market, as well as market leaders and innovators in laboratory, retail pharmacy and long term care. To date, over 26,000 unique persons have consented to enroll in CommonWell’s network. “And we’re just getting started,” said Asnaani.
About CommonWell Health Alliance
CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health IT companies working together to create universal access to health care data. The Alliance is open to all organizations who are committed to making patient's data available to themselves and providers regardless of where care occurs. Alliance members support the belief that provider access to this data must be built into health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.
To learn more about the CommonWell Health Alliance, please visit www.commonwellalliance.org, and read CommonWell Community blog. Also follow CommonWell on Twitter at @CommonWell, join us on the Alliance's LinkedIn page, and like the Alliance's Facebook page.
CommonWell Health Alliance and the CommonWell logo are registered trademarks of CommonWell Health Alliance in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.
