Dr. Bill Braithwaite dedicated his career to improving the quality and efficiency of health and health care for patients and practitioners through research and information technology. However, he is best known as Dr. HIPAA, author of the Administrative Simplification Subtitle of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and major contributor to the regulations setting US standards for transactions, security, and privacy of personal health information. He spent a year as staff to the US Senate Finance Committee and 7 years as Senior Advisor on Health Information Policy in the Office of the Secretary of HHS. Before he (mostly) retired in 2017, he provided strategic advice on health information policy to federal government agencies and the private sector, and served as expert witness in HIPAA privacy and security related legal cases.

Dr. Braithwaite practiced medicine; served as doctor on a nuclear submarine for two tours during the Vietnam war; conducted scientific research in several fields; taught students epidemiology, biostatistics, and medical informatics; taught physicians to improve clinical practice with IT; and was Acting Chair of his Department for a period during his 20-year tenure at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He served on the boards of Health IT organizations and received awards in international recognition of his contributions to the field, including election to Fellowship in HL7 and in the American College of Medical Informatics, the Louis W. Sullivan Award which “recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves through their leadership, vision, and achievements in advancing the overall quality and efficiency of healthcare,” and the HIMSS ‘50 in 50’ Award, recognizing ten individuals for each of the last five decades for their “memorable achievements to the field or body of knowledge of healthcare information technology.”

Dr. Braithwaite received his BA and MD from the University of Chicago and his PhD in Medical Information Science from the University of California, San Francisco.