HHS names new technology policy, health IT leader

The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday disclosed that Thomas Keane has been tapped to serve as the agency’s top technology policy official and national coordinator for health IT.

Keane, a radiologist with previous experience at HHS, is the second person to serve as assistant secretary for technology policy after the role was established under the Biden administration. In a post to LinkedIn on Tuesday, ASTP said Keane’s “leadership will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of #HealthIT and HHS’s technology strategy.”

According to his bio on ASTP’s website, Keane previously worked in the office he now leads and as a senior adviser to the deputy secretary of HHS. In those roles, Keane was part of the department’s COVID-19 response as an administrator of the Provider Relief Fund and led the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s National Nursing Home COVID Action Network.

Keane joins the office less than a year after it got its new name and responsibilities to develop and oversee the agency’s data, technology and AI policy. In July 2024, HHS announced that the national coordinator at the time — Micky Tripathi — would take on the new assistant secretary title, and the department’s chief technology, data and AI officials would be moved under that newly minted arm. 

As a result, the existing Office of the National Coordinator, which already oversaw standards for the exchange of health data, was renamed to reflect its policy role — first to ASTP/ONC and now just ASTP.

It’s not yet clear whether all of the roles under ASTP will stay put, however. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has launched a departmentwide restructuring and a large-scale reduction-in-force to align with President Donald Trump’s marching orders on reshaping and shrinking the federal government. 

Keane adds to the growing cadre of technology and IT leaders at the department under the Trump administration. In addition to officially listing Palantir alum Clark Minor as HHS chief information officer online, the department also recently updated the list of officials that report to him. 

Among those changes, Kevin M. Duvall was listed as deputy CIO, replacing La Monte Yarborough. Duvall has served in multiple roles at HHS, including CTO and CAIO of the Administration for Children and Families and as acting CIO of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, commonly known as ARPA-H. 

In a LinkedIn post about the move, Duvall said that as the deputy he would be “the senior career official for technology at HHS, and work across to support modernization.”