I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Leslie Lenert, M.D., M.S., as Director of CDC’s National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) in the Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service (CCHIS). In this new role, Dr. Lenert will provide critical leadership in the application of information, computer science, and technology to improve public health practice, research, and learning.

Most recently, Dr. Lenert was a Professor of Medicine at the UC Medical School - San Diego. He also concurrently held positions as the Director, Health Services Research Unit, Veterans Administration - San Diego Healthcare System, and Associate Director, San Diego Division, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2).

Dr. Lenert is a prolific author with more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters on a wide range of topics, including internal medicine, health services research, and information technology. He has served on the Editorial Board of four leading medical informatics journals, and is on the Board of Directors of the American Medical Informatics Association. He has been the principal investigator for many federal research grants, including the Wireless Internet Information System for Medical Response in Disasters (WIISARD). WIISARD is one of the National Library of Medicine’s leading projects at the intersection of medical science, wireless communications, and information technology.

Dr. Lenert has other prestigious memberships and affiliations, too numerous to list here. He will begin his duties at CDC on July 23rd. I know that I can count on your enthusiastic support of Dr. Lenert and his appointment as CDC’s Director of the NCPHI.

I extend to Dr. Bob Martin deep appreciation for his remarkable contributions to NCPHI during his tenure as Acting Director. His wisdom and steady guidance have been tremendous assets, not only to NCPHI, but also to the CCHIS. We are fortunate to have had the benefit of his great experience.

Steven L. Solomon, M.D.
Director, Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service
Captain, USPHS