FEATURE
Clinical Innovators
Improving Care Through Technology,
Policy, and Philanthropy:
An Interview with David Blumenthal, MD
David Blumenthal, MD, president of the Common
wealth Fund, a national philanthropy engaged in
independent research on health and social policy
issues, heard the call to public service at an early age.
His professional career has ranged from primary-care
clinical practice to government service to – with the
Commonwealth Fund – leadership of an important
health-care philanthropic organization. Along the
way, Dr. Blumenthal was named the Samuel O. Thier
Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and
Chief Health Information and Innovation Officer at
Partners Healthcare System in Boston. From 2009
to 2011, he served as the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology, where he succeeded
in putting in place one of the largest publicly funded
infrastructure investments the nation has ever made.
Previously, Dr. Blumenthal was a practicing primarycare physician, director of the Institute for Health
Policy, and professor of medicine and health policy at
Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners Heal ѡ