Judy Murphy, RN, FACMI, FHIMSS, FAAN, has been named the new deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology (IT).

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari made the announcement October 24 at the 2011 Medical Group Management Association conference in Las Vegas, NV. On December 5, 2011, Murphy will assume the role vacated by Mostashari, who has been appointed to lead ONC.

The Office of the Deputy National Coordinator for Programs and Policy is one of five key divisions of the ONC for Health IT at HHS.

Murphy will be tasked with overseeing four offices at ONC:

* the Office of Standards and Interoperability;

* the Office of Provider Adoption Support;

* the Office of State and Community Programs; and

* the Office of Policy and Planning.

The role is separate from the newly announced ONC position of principal deputy.

Murphy has 25 years of health informatics experience. She has specialized in system implementation methodologies, health IT project management, automated clinical documentation, and the use of technology to support evidence-based practice. She has a long-standing reputation of patient advocacy and maintaining a "patient-centric" point of view and a commitment to the transformation of healthcare enabled by technology.

For the past 15 years, she has held key senior management positions in the IT department at Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, an integrated delivery network with 15 hospitals, 120 ambulatory centers, home health agencies, and more than 30 000 employees including 1500 physicians. Most recently, she was vice president-EHR applications and managed the organization's successful achievement of stage 1 EHR Meaningful Use for both hospitals and eligible professionals, with incentive payments beginning in September 2011.

Murphy has served on the Health IT Standards Committee since its inception in May 2009. She has also served on the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Board of Directors and the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Board of Directors. She received the 2006 HIMSS Nursing Informatics Leadership Award, was named one of the "20 People Who Make Healthcare Better" in 2007 by Health Leaders magazine, and was selected as one of 33 nursing informatics pioneers to participate in the Nursing Informatics History Project sponsored by AMIA, NLM, AAN, and RWJF.

The HHS recently reorganized the ONC. Deputies will head four divisions reporting to an as-yet unnamed principal deputy, who will report to Mostashari. Murphy said there are about 100 people working in the division, including employees, contract workers, and consultants.