Making good President Bush's promise to put someone in charge of spurring adoption of IT in health care, Dr. David Brailer today was named the country's first National Health Information Technology Coordinator.

In this new position, Brailer will report to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. Thompson announced the appointment at a HHS summit in Washington this afternoon.

Brailer's new job is to coordinate government agencies and private health providers in creating a national electronic infrastructure that would help accomplish another promise Bush made last week--for most Americans to have electronic health records within 10 years.

Brailer is a senior fellow at the Health Technology Center in San Francisco, where he has advised on regional and national efforts on IT and health-information exchange. He previously served for 10 years as chairman and CEO of CareScience Inc., a health-care management company.

CareScience oversaw the development of the Santa Barbara County Health Data Exchange, which allows health providers in California's Santa Barbara County to electronically share patient medical records.