DEERFIELD, Ill. — Dr. David Brailer, chairman of investment firm Health Evolution Partners, is joining the board of directors at Walgreen Co.
Walgreens said Wednesday that Brailer, who will serve as an independent director, becomes the board’s 11th member.
Brailer has been chairman of Health Evolution Partners since 2006. Before joining the firm, he was appointed by the Bush administration as the first National Health Information Technology Coordinator in 2004. In that role, Brailer was the architect of the nation’s effort to bring the health care system into the information age, leading a bipartisan initiative that moved the U.S. health care system toward transparency, quality and efficiency, according to Walgreens.
"David’s expertise in advancing health care technology on a national level, as well as his experience in supporting companies through investments that promote major change in the health system, will provide us with valuable insight," Walgreens chairman Alan McNally said in a statement. "This will be extremely important in the years ahead as technology plays an even greater role in the delivery of quality, affordable and accessible health care."
Before his appointment by the Bush administration, Brailer was a senior fellow at the Health Technology Center in San Francisco, a nonprofit research and education organization that provides strategic information and resources to health care organizations about the future impact of technology in health care delivery, Walgreens said. In 1992, he founded CareScience Inc. as a spin-off from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Under his leadership, CareScience established itself as an early leader in the use of the Internet to share health information and improve the quality of care across the United States.
Prior to 1992, Brailer was with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Wharton School of Business. He founded the health information technology program at The Wharton School Health Management Program, taught health management and economics in the Wharton MBA program and lectured in The Wharton Executive Education program. An M.D., he also was a patient care physician in general medicine and in immune deficiency at the University of Pennsylvania.
"David will be a tremendous resource to our board and our company as we help patients and payers lower health care costs while improving quality, outcomes and transparency through our pharmacy, health and wellness solutions," stated Walgreens president and chief executive officer Greg Wasson.
