Kentuckian Appointed to Executive Branch Committee

Press Release

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has appointed Brett Oliver, MD, of Baptist Health in Louisville, Kentucky, to serve on the Health Information Technology (HIT) Advisory Committee, which is within the executive branch and established by the 21st Century Cures Act. Senator McConnell supported the appointment of Dr. Oliver, a practicing family physician in Scott County and currently serving as the Chief Medical Information Officer for Baptist Health. Dr. Oliver, a graduate of University of Kentucky College of Medicine, is the second Kentuckian appointed to the 25 member committee.

"I applaud the appointment of Dr. Brett Oliver to serve on this new national committee. As the Chief Medical Information Officer at Baptist Health, Dr. Oliver is a well-qualified and welcome addition to the committee designed to advance our nation's health information technology infrastructure and improve the quality of health care for patients," said Senator McConnell.

"Dr. Oliver brings the insights of a practicing primary care physician to this post, having faced the challenges of meeting the healthcare needs in a largely rural state. He has personally seen the benefits of technology through use of electronic health records (EHR) with his patients, and in a professional capacity as a key player in an EHR installation at Kentucky's largest health system. Dr. Oliver is an excellent choice for this committee which advises the federal government on navigating the challenges surrounding health information technology," said Stephen Oglesby, Baptist Health co-CEO. "We want to thank Senator McConnell for giving Dr. Oliver the opportunity to participate in this discussion on a national level."

The HIT Advisory Committee was established under The 21st Century Cures Act, a bipartisan medical research and innovation bill that Senator McConnell helped shepherd through the Senate and into enactment last year.

Earlier this year, Senator McConnell appointed Steve Ready of Norton Healthcare to serve on the HIT Advisory Committee. The Committee is comprised of 25 members: eight citizen members are appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Senate Minority Leader, with the remaining 17 members from two Federal agencies: the Government Accounting Office and the Department of Health & Human Services.

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