Leaders in place to help set and drive agenda for information security in the Health Care Industry

Dec 3, 2008

Dallas – December 3, 2008 – The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) – a healthcare industry organization that aims to build greater trust between patients, physicians, organizations, government and technology companies by ensuring information security becomes a core pillar in the adoption of technology and the exchange of data – today announced it has elected two new members to the HITRUST Executive Council and appointed a new member to its management team. Michael P. Wilson, Chief Information Security Officer, McKesson and Robert Booker, Chief Information Security Officer, UnitedHealth Group were added to the Executive Council. In addition, Cliff Baker joins HITRUST as Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a director in the Healthcare Information Technology practice.

“As HITRUST prepares to publically release the first version of its Common Security Framework (CSF) and Compliance Management Service in January 2009, we know there will be many short- and long-term strategic decisions that need to be made. We are extremely fortunate that Michael and Robert have joined the others on the HITRUST Executive Council in helping lead the industry,” said Daniel Nutkis, Chief Executive Officer, HITRUST. “With the addition of Cliff Baker to the management team, HITRUST gains needed strategic skills and focus to continue to move the industry forward toward the goal of greater trust throughout our healthcare information system.”

The HITRUST Executive Council is now expanded to 12 of the industry’s leading executives tasked with providing strategic guidance and oversight, including: Robert Mandel, MD, Senior Vice President, Health Care Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee; Frank Grant, Senior Director, US Healthcare, Cisco Systems, Inc.; Russell Pierce, Chief Information Security Officer, CVS Caremark; Paul Connelly, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Hospital Corporation of America; Kimberly S. Gray, Esq., CIPP, Chief Privacy Officer, Highmark Inc.; Jonathan Moore, Chief Information Security Officer, Humana Inc.; Jim DeMaioribus, Senior Director, Health Care Strategy, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, Inc.; Patrick Heim, Chief Information Security Officer, Kaiser Permanente; and Nick Mankovich, Senior Director, Product Security & Privacy, Philips Healthcare.

Michael Wilson is responsible for leading McKesson’s corporate information security and risk management functions and is a globally recognized information security thought leader in the healthcare, retail and financial services markets. He adds, “As a leader in health care services and information technology, McKesson is dedicated to helping our customers deliver care that is safer, more efficient and of higher quality. By leveraging our affiliation with HITRUST and its impressive membership, we believe we’ll be able to provide our customers and partners with even greater levels of interoperability, transparency, savings and of course, trust.”

Robert Booker is responsible for information risk management for all of UnitedHealth Group and is an internationally published author and speaker on information security and compliance. He adds, “Everything we do is based on our mission of helping people lead healthier lives. A big element of this mission is facilitating trust among consumers. HITRUST’s practical model for raising the level of trust in the exchange of health care information exchange is proving to be a successful one and is what attracted us to become more actively involved. UnitedHealth Group is committed to be a leader on this important topic.”

Cliff Baker, who has led the development of standards and security risk management systems for multiple healthcare organizations and is a frequent speaker and published author, will be responsible for defining HITRUST’s security risk management solutions and industry partner program. He adds, “With the first version of the Common Security Framework set to be released, HITRUST has demonstrated its ability to effectively bring together a broad range of constituents and is poised to tackle the next stage of its growth – the deployment of the framework throughout the entire industry. I will leverage 14 years of experience in healthcare information security to work with HITRUST and our partners in defining the solutions that address the pressing and complex security challenges of the industry. These challenges include streamlining compliance processes, establishing productive community forums, publishing much needed industry security content, and managing programs to collaborate with the federal government.”

About HITRUST
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) was born out of the belief that information security should be a core pillar of, rather than an obstacle to, the broad adoption of health information systems and exchanges. Security is critical to the broad adoption, utilization of and confidence in health information systems, medical technologies and electronic exchanges of health information. This, in turn, is critical to realizing the related promise of quality improvement and cost containment in America’s healthcare system. HITRUST is collaborating with healthcare, business, technology, and information security leaders to establish a certifiable framework that can be used by any and all organizations that create, access, store or exchange personal health and financial information. Beyond the establishment of the first-ever common security framework, HITRUST is also driving adoption and widespread confidence in the framework and sound risk management practices through awareness, education, advocacy and other outreach activities. For more information, visit www.HITRUSTalliance.org.
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