VA’s Top Doctor Named to National Commission

WASHINGTON (September 14, 2005) – Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, the Under Secretary for Health within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), has been named to a special commission charged with increasing the health care industry’s use of computerized patient records and other digital information.

“Dr. Perlin’s selection to this important post signifies the respect he has from his colleagues,” said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “As a member of this panel, Dr. Perlin will be able to share the lessons learned from VA’s leadership role in computerized patient records.”

The federally-chartered commission is called the American Health Information Community. It was formed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Perlin will be one of 16 commissioners.

A Sept. 12 article by the Associated Press (AP) noted that the 50,000 patients served by VA’s New Orleans medical center had complete access to their computerized records when the facility was evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. AP called VA “a bright exception” to the plight of many storm victims who lost their paper medical records.

Perlin was sworn in as VA’s Under Secretary for Health on May 5, 2005. He has served on the staff of the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond, Va., and at the Richmond VA Medical Center. He has been in the Department’s Washington headquarters since 1999.

Perlin led the way in the creation of the Department’s performance standards for its health care professionals and in the deployment of VA’s computerized health records, credited with improving patient care and patient satisfaction with VA’s health care system.

VA’s health care system includes 196,500 health care professionals, 125,000 volunteers, 80,000 health profession trainees and 25,000 affiliated medical faculty.

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