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CalPERS teams with expert

Posted On: Jun. 10, 2007 12:00 AM CST

CalPERS teams with expert

Dr. David J. Brailer was appointed the first National Health Information Technology Coordinator by President George W. Bush on May 6, 2004.

He was charged with setting the nation's health care industry on a course toward modernized health information standards, certification of health information tools, state-of-the-art information sharing architectures and new policies for protection of consumer privacy. During his tenure, he also pushed information technology programs for adverse drug events, bioterrorism, pandemic flu and other public health threats.

In April 2006, after having completed the groundwork for building a national health IT infrastructure, Dr. Brailer left the federal government to return to the private sector. In May 2007, Dr. Brailer launched Health Evolution Partners, a private equity fund focused on transforming the health care industry. Initially, the fund will make investments on behalf of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, but after one year, the fund will be open to other investors.

Dr. Brailer holds doctoral degrees in both medicine and economics. He earned his medical degree from West Virginia University and his doctorate in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. As a doctor of internal medicine, he practiced in HIV medicine and immune deficiency until 2002, when he founded CareScience Inc., a company that developed a health information exchange that published quality reports on physicians and hospitals. The company also formed a hospital and physician network dedicated to improving health care quality.