Thomas Keane, M.D., named assistant secretary for technology policy and national coordinator of health IT at HHS
Updated June 3
Thomas Keane, M.D., has been tapped to lead health IT policy at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
On Tuesday morning, HHS announced that it appointed Keane to be the second Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and ninth National Coordinator of Health Information Technology. He succeeds former Biden appointee Micky Tripathi.
Keane is a radiologist and engineer and also a figure in HHS. He held the role of Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of HHS from 2018-2020 under the first Trump administration, and he served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) from 2021-2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Within HHS, Keane was particularly involved with efforts related to COVID-19 as an administrator of the Provider Relief Fund and he led the AHRQ National Nursing Home COVID Action Network, according to an HHS webpage.
Keane worked full-time as a radiologist before joining HHS in 2018. He worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital for a year before moving to Radiology Associates of Southeastern Ohio, where he was CEO. Keane has been practicing radiology part-time since 2015.
HHS’ health IT office has been overseen by Steve Posnack since March, following the departure of Tripathi at the close of the Biden Administration. Posnack is a career ASTP/ONC employee that has held many leadership positions within the department and represented continuity for health tech policy.
Keane enters the role of Assistant Secretary and National Coordinator as ASTP and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services receive feedback on a request for information on how to ease data exchange among the healthcare ecosystem for patients, providers, payers, vendors and value-based care organizations through a request for information published May 13.
The RFI also asks questions related to information blocking, price transparency, prior authorization and quality measurement policies.
Stakeholders say the RFI could have a profound impact and change the ecosystem. While it’s not clear how Keane and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, M.D., will implement feedback, stakeholders say the outcome could be transformational for interoperability and data access.
Steve Posnack named acting assistant secretary
Steve Posnack, a career health technology official of nearly 20 years, has been tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS') health IT arm as acting assistant secretary of technology policy, according to an HHS website.
Posnack succeeds Micky Tripathi, assistant secretary of technology policy under former President Joe Biden, who exited the role at the end of the Biden administration, as is customary for agency leaders. Posnack also will serve as acting national coordinator of health information technology (ONC).
Posnack has served under eight National Coordinators of Health IT since the position was created by President George Bush in 2004. Posnack started as a policy analyst at ONC and has held the titles of director of the federal policy division, director of the office of standards and technology, executive director of the office of technology and, most recently, deputy national coordinator of health IT.
Don Rucker, national coordinator of health IT under the first Trump administration, promoted Posnack during his tenure and commends the appointment to acting assistant secretary.
"I appointed Steve as deputy national coordinator and have a very high opinion of his knowledge of informatics and policy," Rucker said in a statement to Fierce Healthcare. "I think he will do a very pro-public job as acting national coordinator as the Trump administration puts its political appointees in place to manage digital interoperability."
Tom Leary, senior vice president and head of government relations at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), said Posnack will be a source of continuity for the office due to his deep knowledge about health information technology and the work of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT over the last two decades.
Leary said Posnack is “community-oriented,” “collegial,” and a recognized leader in the U.S. and internationally about information sharing.
“Because he's risen through the ranks to the number two position, he understands both U.S.-based, local, state, territorial, tribal [and] national expectations,” Leary said. “There are very few people that understand the technical side and what's happening in different communities, different constituencies.”
Leary said HIMSS is still waiting to see what direction the Trump administration will take with health IT. It anticipates the continuation of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) which connects health information networks (HINs) across the country.
“The first Trump administration was very active on defining what TEFCA would be like, and I think the Biden team built on that,” Leary said. “I'm advising members that we're anticipating things are going to continue to move forward. However, the last 40 days have really been a break from the norm, and so we're preparing for what happens if they … change the approach from its current trajectory.”
Leary said over the next four years that he hopes that ASTP and ONC will work on frameworks for healthcare cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Both are areas where the European Union is pacing ahead with standards creation, and Leary said the U.S. could fall behind in competitiveness.
Leary is encouraged by the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) request for information on AI, which will inform the administration’s new AI Action Plan, according to a notice in the Federal Register. HIMSS is seizing the comment opportunity to make policy suggestions for healthcare, though the AI Action Plan will span various sectors of the U.S. economy.
“The Trump Administration is committed to ensuring the United States is the undeniable leader in AI technology. This AI Action Plan is the first step in securing and advancing American AI dominance, and we look forward to incorporating the public’s comments and innovative ideas,” Lynne Parker, Principal Deputy Director of the OSTP, said in a White House press release.