Acting Director, Office of Programs & Coordination, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Mary Jo Deering, PhD, is currently the Acting Director for Communications in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She leads comprehensive, HHS-wide communication activities related to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which provided $2 billion to the ONC to support the transformation of American health care through the adoption and meaningful use of health IT and the secure, interoperable exchange of health information. She also oversees the ONC’s cooperative agreement with the National eHealth Collaborative, a public-private partnership that promotes the development of a nationwide health information system.
Previously, Deering was the Director for Informatics Dissemination and Outreach in the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology, which leads the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG). She also served as Lead Staff for the NCVHS National Health Information Infrastructure Workgroup, and for the NCVHS Workgroups on the Nationwide Health Information Network and on Secondary Uses of Data, all of which provided recommendations for the HHS Secretary. While serving as Deputy Director for eHealth and Management in the HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, she led innovative programs in consumer health informatics, including convening the first scientific panel that laid the foundations for evaluating interactive online consumer health programs and promoting their effectiveness. Deering served on the Federal Communication Commission’s Advisory Committee on Telecommunications and Health Care.
As a federal employee, she collaborates with Markle, but does not endorse documents.
