In her position as Senior Policy Advisor, Ellen Makar promotes adoption of consumer focused health information technology solutions to meet the triple aim of better health, better healthcare, and lower cost. Within the Office of the National Coordinator at HHS, the Office of Consumer eHealth, (OCeH), looks to improve nationwide access, action and attitudes toward the use of Health IT with a primary focus on engaging consumers and catalyzing providers and data holders to advance that engagement.
Before to moving to Washington DC, Ellen was Director, Nursing and Clinical Transformation, at Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT. There she led transformation efforts as the EPIC electronic health record was implemented across 4 distinct hospitals at YNHHS. Prior to that role, she was instrumental in Yale New Haven’s Magnet efforts with key responsibilities in the areas of data collection design and analysis required for YNHH’s successful Magnet designation. Her career spans direct clinical patient care, managed care, case management, informatics, and executive nursing practice.
A registered nurse since 1985, Ellen earned her MSN from Yale University and teaches classes in data and project management at YSN and the University of Baltimore in an adjunct role. In 2009 she was chosen by the Alliance for Nursing Informatics as 1 of 2 National Emerging Leaders in Nursing Informatics and was named one of the “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better” by HealthLeaders magazine in 2010. Ellen is pleased to be in a position where she has the opportunity to see her efforts broadly impact patient outcomes on a national scale.