Micky Tripathi Named New National Coordinator for Health IT

Micky Tripathi, a well-decorated health IT professional with roughly 20 years of experience, has been appointed as the new national coordinator for health IT following President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Most recently, Tripathi served as the chief alliance officer at Arcadia, a healthcare analytics and software solutions company, where he developed partnerships to accelerate advanced technology and enhance healthcare.

Prior to Arcadia, Tripathi had been the president and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit health IT advisory and clinical data analytics company, to enhance the quality and safety of healthcare through technology.

Tripathi also had a prior stint before he got to MAeHC as a manager of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a strategy and management consulting firm. While managing BCG, he was the founding president and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange that partnered with the Regenstrief Institute to develop the statewide HIE.

Tripathi also serves on the boards of directors of the Sequoia Project, CommonWell Health Alliance, the CARIN Alliance, HL7 International, the HL7 FHIR Foundation, and Datica.

Furthermore, he is also the project manager of the Argonaut Project, a collaboration aiming to accelerate the adoption of FHIR; an executive adviser for LVR Health investment firm; and an affiliate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

Tripathi holds a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, and an AB in political science from Vassar College.

Tripathi replaces Don Rucker, MD, who served as national coordinator from April 2017 until this most recent transition of power.

Rucker congratulated Tripathi on Twitter on Wednesday.  

“Congrats to @mickytripathi1 on leading @ONC_HealthIT. Your rich experiences in HIT will be invaluable as you start your journey to advance US and global healthcare with actionable computing. My very best wishes.”

Farzad Mostashari, MD, who served as national coordinator from 2009 to 2011, also congratulated Tripathi on Twitter on Wednesday.

"Huge congratulations to my friend Micky Tripathi on being named President Biden's National Coordinator for Health Information Technology! A fantastic pick who understands technology, policy, and real-world practice workflows, and has credibility with all."

Looking forward, Tripathi will soon implement the ONC interoperability rule that the prior administration released in March 2020.

Following a recent delay, the information blocking provisions and requirements compliance date is now April 5, 2021. Both the 2015 edition health IT certification criteria and the new standardized application programming interface (API) functionality dates are now required by December 31, 2022.

The published interoperability rule aims to drive patient access to and sharing of their electronic health information, allowing patients to coordinate their own healthcare. It also takes a strong stance against information blocking and aims to hold health IT developers accountable as a Condition of Certification.