1. David Blumenthal was born on August 31,1948 and is an academic physician and health care policy expert, known as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology from 2009 to 2011 during the early implementation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act provisions on "meaningful use".
David Blumenthal's mother was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a Jewish family that originated in Prussia and Baden, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Frankfurt, Germany.
David Blumenthal was a lecturer of health policy at the Kennedy School of Government from 1980 to 1987.
David Blumenthal was an instructor, then professor, of medicine, social medicine and health policy, and of health care policy at the Harvard Medical School from 1980 and a lecturer on health services, health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1983.
David Blumenthal was a professional staff member to the US Senate Committee on Human Resources health and scientific research subcommittee in 1977 to 1979.
David Blumenthal became chief of the Health Policy Research and Development Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1991 and director of the Institute for Health Policy for the Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare System in 1988.
On March 20,2009, President Obama appointed David Blumenthal to be the National Health Information Technology Coordinator, just a month after the enactment of a federal stimulus package that included about $19 billion in incentives, by Medicare and Medicaid, for the adoption of electronic health records.
David Blumenthal's charge was to set enabling policy for a nationwide health information system and to support widespread meaningful use of health information technology.
In 2010, he was named by Modern Healthcare as the most influential physician executive in the US In February 2011, David Blumenthal announced that he would leave the post of National Coordinator that spring; on April 8, Farzad Mostashari was announced as his successor.
David Blumenthal married Ellen Gravitz Blumenthal on August 9,1970.
David Blumenthal's older brother, Richard, is a United States senator from Connecticut.