Vindell Washington, MD, has been named the ONC's Principal Deputy National Coordinator, effective January 25, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Karen DeSalvo announced on Tuesday.

Washington will be responsible for the executive leadership of all ONC programs, operations and policies. His role is designed to advance administration programs, such as the Precision Medicine Initiative, Interoperability Roadmap implementation and delivery system reform.

[Also: ONC reveals final interoperability roadmap]

He most recently served as president and CMIO of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System Medical Group in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he led a team of more than 500 physicians and practitioners and 1,400 employees at more than  70 locations.

At FMOLHS, Washington led the early adoption of health IT and medical device data integration into the EHRs, as well as the widespread clinical decision deployment.

Before joining FMOLHS, Washington was CEO of Piedmont Healthcare Management Group in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was in charge of the coding and billing process technology developments.

Prior to that, he served as president and CEO of Piedmont Emergency Medicine Associates in Charlotte, a 70-provider hospitalist medicine and emergency medical group.

Twitter: @JessiefDavis