Karen Bell, MD, MMS, Director, Office of Health It Adoption

Dr. Bell is a board certified internist with extensive experience in office practice, public health, academic medicine, physician support, and commercial health insurance.   Karen joined the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology as acting director of the Office of Health IT Adoption and was appointed permanent director and acting deputy national coordinator in 2006. Dr. Bell joined the CMS in 2004 after developing multiple successful payer contracting models that provided financial support for the adoption of clinical health information technologies. There, her work focused on supporting HIT adoption through contracts with the quality improvement organizations in every state. She graduated from Pembroke College and Tufts University School of Medicine and trained at Harvard teaching hospitals in internal medicine.  She spent two years at Toronto General Hospital and finished an infectious disease fellowship at the University of Chicago before accepting appointments at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Department of Public Health.  While in Rochester, Dr. Bell was a principal investigator on the Medicare Demonstration Project that led to coverage of influenza vaccine for Medicare beneficiaries. She has held an appointment at Harvard Medical School, practiced at MGH  and served as Harvard Community Health Plan medical director.