Sharon Terry Appointed to Health IT Standards Committee
Genetic Alliance President and CEO to Serve on Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee

WASHINGTON – May 11, 2009 – Sharon Terry, president and chief executive officer of Genetic Alliance, a nonprofit health advocacy organization, has been appointed as a member of the Health Information Technology (HIT) Standards Committee. This federal advisory body is charged with making recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for the electronic exchange of information.

The HIT Standards Committee is among federal advisory committees established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced committee members on May 8, 2009.

”I am excited and honored to serve on this committee,” said Terry. “Standards are critical to the transformation of health and healthcare in this nation. I look forward to an intense and productive process. Consumers – and that means all of us – need standards in place now to enable interoperability complete with the right balance of confidentiality and access.”

"Sharon Terry has a wealth of experience bringing people together around complicated and sometimes divisive issues,” said Joel White, executive director of the Health IT Now! Coalition. “That is why I am pleased she has been selected to the HHS HIT Standards Committee. In order to achieve real health reform, we need people like Sharon to bring a consumer voice to the technology roundtable to ensure the potential of health information technology is realized. Lower costs, better care and more access are issues Sharon has been fighting for and ones she will bring to HHS. I couldn't be happier."

In all collaboration, Terry embodies Genetic Alliance’s commitment to open dialogue built on novel partnerships that will transform health systems to meet the needs of individuals, families and communities. Related to HIT specifically, Genetic Alliance recognizes the promise of standardized health information technology and acknowledges the value of stakeholder concerns surrounding implementation. Genetic Alliance is very concerned that privacy, confidentiality and access are balanced in the resulting systems.

Terry also serves on the board of directors of the Coalition for 21st Century Medicine, National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics and the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation. She is a liaison to both the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, and the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research.

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About Genetic Alliance
Genetic Alliance transforms health through genetics, promoting an environment of openness centered on the health of individuals, families, and communities. Genetic Alliance brings together diverse stakeholders that create novel partnerships in advocacy; integrates individual, family, and community perspectives to improve health systems; and revolutionizes access to information to enable translation of research into services and individualized decision making. For more information about Genetic Alliance, visit http://www.geneticalliance.org.