Administrator Actions

BUSINESS NEWS

In October, Leslie V. Norwalk was named acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS; Baltimore). Previously deputy administrator for the agency, Norwalk replaces Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, who had held the top post at CMS since March 2004.

In late September, Robert M. Kolodner, MD, joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Washington, DC) as the interim head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. On leave from his position as chief health informatics officer for the Veterans Health Administration in the Department of Veterans Affairs (Washington, DC), Kolodner replaces David J. Brailer, MD, PhD, who served as the office's first occupant starting in 2004.

In October, former FDA chief Lester Crawford, DVM, PhD, pleaded guilty to charges of false reporting and conflicts of interest related to ownership of stocks in companies that are regulated by the agency. Crawford resigned as FDA commissioner in September 2005.