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Steven Posnack

Portrait of Steven Posnack

Steven Posnack serves as the Deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

Prior to this role he served as executive director of the Office of Technology. In this role, Mr. Posnack advises the national coordinator, leads the ONC Health IT Certification Program, and directs ONC’s standards and technology investments through the ONC Tech Lab, which organizes its work into four focus areas: pilots, standards coordination, testing and utilities, and innovation. He led the creation of the Interoperability Standards Advisory, the redesign of ONC’s Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL), created the Interoperability Proving Ground, and developed the C-CDA Scorecard.

Prior to serving as the director of the Office of Standards and Technology, Mr. Posnack led ONC’s federal policy division within the Office of Policy and Planning from 2010 to 2014. In this capacity, he led ONC’s regulatory affairs, legislative analysis, and several federal policy development and coordination activities. From 2005 to 2010, he served as a senior policy analyst within ONC’s Office of Policy and Research. In that position, he co-authored the Nationwide Privacy and Security Framework for Electronic Exchange of Individually Identifiable Health Information. He also led a cross-HHS policy team that worked with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as it developed its regulation for the electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS).

Mr. Posnack earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Master’s degree in security informatics from Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, and a Master’s degree in health policy from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also maintains a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certificate.

Steven Posnack's Latest Blog Posts

The ONC Health IT Certification Program Approves the HIMSS-Immunization Integration Program (IIP) Testing Method

Steven Posnack | October 17, 2017

Today, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is announcing that the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has successfully demonstrated that its testing method, as part of the Immunization Integration Program (HIMSS-IIP), can serve as an alternative to the current National Coordinator-approved method for testing transmissions to immunization registries. 

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Get Ready for a Showdown! – The Secure API Server Showdown Challenge

Steven Posnack | October 10, 2017

In 2014, man created FHIR.
In other words, that is when the Health Level 7 (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard was released as a first draft standard for trial use (“FHIR DSTU1”) for implementation in health information technology (health IT) software. FHIR is a standardized way to exchange health information that’s similar to the way we experience using the Internet. The FHIR standard’s security page notes, however, that FHIR “is not a security protocol,

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Certification Program Updates to Support Efficiency & Reduce Burden

Steven Posnack | September 21, 2017

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is always on the lookout for ways to improve the ONC Health IT Certification Program’s efficiency and reduce burden on health information technology (health IT) users and health IT developers.  Whether it is making certification criteria clarifications clearer and more rapidly accessible through the Certification Companion Guides, or offering more flexible certification options through rulemaking, ONC looks to achieve its mission in the most nimble way possible while still serving the needs of patients,

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A 5-year Goal to Transition the ONC Health IT Certification Program’s Testing Portfolio

Steven Posnack | August 3, 2017

Throughout its seven-year history, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) Health IT Certification Program (Program) has evolved in many ways, including improvements that enhanced the Program’s integrity, transparency, and efficiency. Central to the Program’s administration is the use of electronic, automated testing tools for health information technology (health IT). These tools enable health IT to be repeatedly and rigorously tested relative to its ability to accurately create standardized data files and perform interoperability oriented transactions.

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