Public Biography
Jorge Ferrer, MD, MBA, FAMIA, FHIMSS, has practiced healthcare informatics since 2000 within the U.S. Federal government with expertise in health informatics policy, standards, perioperative care informatics, provider directory innovations, interoperability, and distributed ledger technology (blockchain) in healthcare. Dr. Ferrer specializes in federal healthcare informatics and surgical assisting in complex surgery in the private sector. Jorge currently works as an Informatics Health System Specialist in the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics.
Jorge was government staff (2002-2010) on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics with VHA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). At VHA, he worked on the federal steering committee (2010-2014) in the Office of the National Coordinator Strategic Health Information Technology Advanced Research Project, dedicated to patient-centered cognitive support which addressed the usability of EHRs. Jorge served on the American Medical Informatics Association’s Policy Committee (2016-2017) and in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Certified Technology Comparison Task Force & Health Information Interoperability Experience Task Force (2016). Jorge chaired the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Innovation Committee (2014-2016), and he served as vice chair (2021-2022) and chair (2022-2023) of the Blockchain in Healthcare HIMSS Task Force. He currently serves on the Physician Committee of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Prior to VHA, Jorge was a Medical Officer at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and served as a technical advisor to the Consolidated Health Informatics eGov initiative to establish federal health information interoperability standards. He was CMS’s HL7 EHR functional model & standards workgroup representative, and he led the VistA-Office Electronic Health Record (VOE) project, which is an ambulatory EHR system that CMS developed, based on the Veterans Health Administration's VistA clinical information system. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Sciences Informatics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was appointed by their Chief Information Officer to the Clinical Systems Advisory Committee at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
Dr. Ferrer is a recipient of the 2022 FedHealth IT Innovation Award and 2024 FORUM IT 100 Award. He serves on the Editorial Board for Blockchain in Healthcare Today journal, Government Chair of the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) Blockchain Working Group and ACT-IAC Emerging Technology Community of Interest. Dr. Ferrer is an affiliate member of the American College of Surgeons, a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, a member of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and an editor of Aspects of the Computerized Medical Record, Computers in Health Care, Health Informatics Series, 2006 2nd Edition, Springer. Dr. Ferrer received an M.D. from Universidad Anahuac Medical School, earned an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Health Informatics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and holds a Texas Medical Board license as a surgical assistant.
Jorge was government staff (2002-2010) on the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics with VHA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). At VHA, he worked on the federal steering committee (2010-2014) in the Office of the National Coordinator Strategic Health Information Technology Advanced Research Project, dedicated to patient-centered cognitive support which addressed the usability of EHRs. Jorge served on the American Medical Informatics Association’s Policy Committee (2016-2017) and in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Certified Technology Comparison Task Force & Health Information Interoperability Experience Task Force (2016). Jorge chaired the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Innovation Committee (2014-2016), and he served as vice chair (2021-2022) and chair (2022-2023) of the Blockchain in Healthcare HIMSS Task Force. He currently serves on the Physician Committee of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Prior to VHA, Jorge was a Medical Officer at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and served as a technical advisor to the Consolidated Health Informatics eGov initiative to establish federal health information interoperability standards. He was CMS’s HL7 EHR functional model & standards workgroup representative, and he led the VistA-Office Electronic Health Record (VOE) project, which is an ambulatory EHR system that CMS developed, based on the Veterans Health Administration's VistA clinical information system. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Sciences Informatics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was appointed by their Chief Information Officer to the Clinical Systems Advisory Committee at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
Dr. Ferrer is a recipient of the 2022 FedHealth IT Innovation Award and 2024 FORUM IT 100 Award. He serves on the Editorial Board for Blockchain in Healthcare Today journal, Government Chair of the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) Blockchain Working Group and ACT-IAC Emerging Technology Community of Interest. Dr. Ferrer is an affiliate member of the American College of Surgeons, a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, a member of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and an editor of Aspects of the Computerized Medical Record, Computers in Health Care, Health Informatics Series, 2006 2nd Edition, Springer. Dr. Ferrer received an M.D. from Universidad Anahuac Medical School, earned an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Health Informatics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and holds a Texas Medical Board license as a surgical assistant.
Affiliations
Fellows of AMIA (FAMIA)
FAMIA stands for “Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association” and it recognizes the contributions and professional accomplishments of AMIA members who apply informatics skills and knowledge to their practice – be that in a clinical setting, a public or population health capacity, or as a clinical researcher.
Year Inducted
2019