Innovator In Residence
Pierce Graham-Jones
The fellow is selected for his or her experience in strategy and implementation of health care innovation, particularly around the commercialization of health care data. He or she is chosen from leading private or public sector institutions, and is expected to manage and accelerate strategic projects for HHS for the year.
Liberating data and getting it into the ecosystem is key to lowering health care costs, and is a core focus area of both HHS and the West Health Institute. The fellow will act as an active interface between the government entrepreneurial community to further the development of new health care-related applications and services that access the massive datasets HHS is now making available. Working from the Office of the Secretary at HHS, and collaborating with leadership across the Department, he or she will identify new business opportunities and will work with care delivery organizations, technology companies, and funders to apply the aggressive talent and creative thinking of industry to these opportunities.
HHS’ IIR Fellow in this unique, one-year program is Pierce Graham-Jones, who most recently served as strategy lead for the Beacon Community Program through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Pierce was a management consultant at Monitor Group before joining the government. He has spent the last three years at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), serving as David Blumenthal’s special assistant, helping manage the $250 million Beacon Community Program, and co-authoring the health care chapter of the National Broadband Plan. He brings to the position a unique blend of business acumen, a developed understanding of macro health care policy and HHS strategy, and ground-level experience at the intersection of payment reform and delivery system improvement. Read more about the Innovator in Residence in our press release.
Graham-Jones is leading a new initiative to automate the Blue Button™. The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are launching the initiative to develop standards that allow patients to privately and securely download their health information in a common, machine-readable format, as well as automate the exchange of that data from their health care providers to other third party apps and services.
The newly formed Health Data Initiative Affiliates Program has established regional chapters across the country, to interface with Graham-Jones and HHS. They will work with state and local governments to liberate health care data, and replicate the success of the national Health Data Initiative in engaging entrepreneurs and the business community around the new data.
Learn more about the Health Data Initiative Affiliates Program.
The Million Hearts Risk Check Challenge invites developers to create a mobile app that will help consumers take a heart health risk assessment, find places to get their blood pressure and cholesterol checked and use the results to work with their health care professional to develop a plan to improve their heart health as part of the public-private Million Hearts initiative.