The Comptroller General announced the names of the 13 appointed members of the Health IT Policy Committee. I’ve met a few of the people on the list, both in my government and post-government careers, and they’re all strong choices. Judy Faulkner, the CEO of Epic, is an especially interesting choice. I haven’t met her, so I have no assessment on personal ability, but Epic has managed to distinguish itself partly by acknowledging that not every hospital or large practice is ready for a Health IT deployment. Turning down business is a great way to get some press (and it’s a strategy only a privately held company can get away with), but I think it will be generally helpful to have a vendor representative who has essentially gotten up in front of the industry and admitted that HIT is not a be-all, end-all panacea.

Linking to John Halamka’s post for the list, since he’s already formatted it nicely:

Life as a Healthcare CIO: The HIT Policy Committee Members.

Still to come (although I saw some rumors elsewhere on the blogosphere this morning) are the formal appointments by Congressional leaders. Depending on how the committee structures itself, those appointments could be very important. HIT promotion has been a relatively bipartisan issue, but the stimulus bill hasn’t been.