Michelle Dougherty

Michelle Dougherty is an expert in health informatics, health IT, and related policy areas with leadership experience throughout the health care standards community. Ms. Dougherty has extensive expertise in the use of health information and technology to support the care delivery process, emerging payment models, quality measurement, and data standards. Her expertise is sought after in helping inform and shape public policy, including testimony and appointments on health care policy-shaping groups.

Much of Ms. Dougherty’s work focuses on health informatics and advancing interoperable health IT in health care settings with specialized expertise in long-term care, post-acute care, and home- and community-based services for an aging population. She convened and continues to facilitate the long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) Health Information Technology Collaborative, a public-private partnership whose mission is to accelerate the use of technology tools to support person-centered care across the continuum.

Currently, Ms. Dougherty serves as an associate project director for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)-funded alternative payment model for primary care contract, known as Primary Care First. In addition, she serves as project director for studies funded through the Office of the Assistant Director for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) on the use of health IT and interoperability in behavioral health and LTPAC.

Ms. Dougherty’s subject matter and technical expertise supports various other projects, including the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Nutrition for Precision Health data curation team, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) electronic care plan project to pilot test a SMART on FHIR application, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC’s) Recognizing Coordinating Entity for TEFCA, and on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-funded Medicare Shared Savings project and transition to electronic clinical quality measures.

Ms. Dougherty joined RTI in 2015. Previously, she was Senior Director of Research and Development with the AHIMA Foundation, where she focused on advancing strategy in the areas of workforce development, evidence-based health information research, and health care policy in the United States and globally. She has also served as the Director of Practice Leadership with the American Health Information Management Association, leading industry- and profession-shaping initiatives that advanced health information issues, particularly in health IT, legal EHR requirements, and LTPAC and long-term services and supports (LTSS). She convened public and private stakeholders to shape national health IT policies for LTPAC and co-chaired a Health Level Seven (HL7) standards workgroup to develop EHR standards.

In 2008, Ms. Dougherty received a special recognition from the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging for exemplary federal research to advance the well-being of older Americans. She is a member and RTI’s organizational lead of HL7, the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).