Electronic Health Reporter

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange, announces its appointment of the newest co-chair to the organization’s Security and Privacy Workgroup, Ryan Witt, Vice President and Managing Director, Healthcare Industry Practice for Fortinet. The existing workgroup leaders include:

• Peter Dumont, Senior Director – Privacy Office, Optum
• Deidre Rodriguez, Director of Corporate Privacy Office, Anthem
• Richard Wagner, Security and Compliance Officer, ABILITY Network
• Mark Cone, Principal, N-Tegrity Solutions Group Consulting, LLC
• Marian Reed, Senior Director, McKesson (WEDI Board Liaison)

Witt will collaborate with the workgroup to guide WEDI’s efforts to help facilitate the implementation of HIPAA/HITECH privacy and security requirements across many variations of covered entities; business associates and interested parties across the healthcare industry.

“With Witt’s passion for transforming healthcare, he will we be instrumental in supporting the workgroup’s responsibility for identifying and working toward resolutions on all implementation issues related to securing, and protecting health information across the industry,” said WEDI President and CEO Devin Jopp, Ed.D. “His contributions to the 2013 WEDI report and continued support of WEDI have been invaluable.”

At Fortinet, Witt partners closely with healthcare industry leaders to demonstrate the importance of high-performance network security as a key enabler for enhancing access to high quality patient care, and reducing the cost of care provision and improving patient outcomes. Ryan has served on several boards, founded Juniper Network’s Healthcare Industry Practice, and was the Chair of Juniper’s Healthcare Advisory Board. Ryan has also held leadership positions at Hitachi Data Systems, BridgeHead Software and ClearDATA having working within health IT for almost 20 years.

“I am honored to extend my service to WEDI as the newest co-chair of the association’s security and privacy workgroup. As a previous chair of the Innovative Encounters Workgroup and member of the WEDI Board of Directors, I am excited to continue to serve the association and contribute my ideas to the crucial area of privacy and security within health IT,” added Witt.
For more information on the latest activities of the WEDI Security and Privacy Workgroup, visit the WEDI Security & Privacy Workgroup page.

About WEDI
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including: hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards development organizations. To learn more, visit www.wedi.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.