Cleveland Clinic CIO Appointed To President's 'Wounded Warrior' CommissionCleveland Clinic CIO Appointed To President's 'Wounded Warrior' Commission

The Cleveland Clinic's CIO Dr. C. Martin Harris has been appointed by President Bush to a new nine-member federal commission charged with evaluating health care, education, employment, and other services to help wounded soldiers transition back to civilian life or military service.

Harris is the only CIO named to the Commission On Care For America's Returning Wounded Warriors, which is being co-chaired by former senator Bob Dole and Donna Shalala, former secretary of Health and Human Services. Bush signed an executive order last week establishing the commission.

This is the second time Harris has been appointed by Bush to a federal commission. Harris also was the only CIO that Bush selected in 2005 to the Commission on Systemic Interoperability, which has since disbanded but was charged with reporting to Congress recommendations, priorities, and a timeline for implementing a nationwide electronic health information exchange network.

According to the executive order signed by Bush, the new commission is charged with examining "the effectiveness of returning wounded service members' transition from deployment in support of the Global War on Terror to successful return to productive military service or civilian society, and recommend needed improvements."

It's also to "evaluate the coordination, management, and adequacy of the delivery of health care, disability, traumatic injury, education, employment, and other benefits and services to returning wounded Global War on Terror service members by federal agencies as well as by the private sector, and recommend ways to ensure that programs provide high-quality services."

The commission is to issue a report on its findings to Bush no later than July 31, and will be disbanded 30 days after submitting the report.

Besides Harris, other members named to the commission include two veterans wounded in Iraq; the wife of an Army staff sergeant wounded in Iraq; the CEO of a non-profit organization that constructs housing for families of hospitalized wounded military personnel; the CEO of a rehab hospital; and an economist.