A new Chief Nursing Officer at ONC

National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD, announced this week that Rebecca Freeman, RN, will join the agency to spearhead its nursing outreach and help shape its clinical informatics activities.

Working in ONC's Office of Clinical Quality and Safety, Freeman will lead initiatives focused on health IT enabled nursing practice and research. As a liaison offering support to providers, vendors and healthcare agencies, she'll help her fellow RNs keep up with the fast-changing field of nursing informatics..

Prior to joining ONC, Freeman was assistant vice president and Epic national nurse champion at the Hospital Corporation of America. There, she led the planning and coordination of enterprise-wide Epic deployment, working to ensure the technology's alignment with HCA's safety, compliance, efficiency and care improvement goals.


Before HCA, she was chief nursing information officer and manager of the nursing informatics program at the Medical University of South Carolina. She's also an executive nurse fellow at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In addition to a degree in nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina, Freeman also holds a BS in psychology and philosophy from the College of Charleston and a PhD from the Medical University of South Carolina.

"Rebecca's experience in implementing and using health IT systems – and her background in philosophy – make her a perfect complement to the team here at ONC," said DeSalvo in an email to department staff