Associate Director for Informatics and Information Resources

CDC role

Mr. Santas works to apply health information technology to modernize work processes, data management and GHC's business operations. This work allows scientists to identify disease trends and provide health recommendations.

Since 2021, Mr. Santas leads the implementation of the Global Public Health Digital Innovation funded by the America Rescue Plan. This three-year $140M investment aims to modernize data systems and processes around the world to strengthen global outbreak response, pandemic preparedness, and routine surveillance.

Previous experience

Mr. Santas co-chaired the PEPFAR Health Information System technical working group. In this role Mr. Santas assisted foreign governments, U.S. government grantees and field offices to plan, design, implement, secure, and evaluate health information systems to measure health services and improve health outcomes. This working group helped automate the flow of data from patient-level to summary indicator systems. It also contributed to building evidence that implementation of health information systems improves program operations and health outcomes. The work also supported strengthening human capacity for designing, implementing, securing, evaluating, and using these systems.

Mr. Santas also worked in the U.S. domestic HIV surveillance program, where he reviewed and improved the ability of state and local health departments to effectively protect the electronic security and confidentiality of HIV/AIDS data. He oversaw the modernization of CDC's HIV/AIDS Reporting System to then-current industry and public health standards for architecture, system and database design, interconnectivity, data content, security, and confidentiality.

Areas of expertise

Mr. Santas has extensive experience establishing and monitoring contract vehicles for designing, implementing, securing, managing, using, and evaluating information systems.

Mr. Santas is a published author whose research and publication topics include:

• Evaluation of health information systems.
• Data confidentiality and information system security.
• Implementation of national health identifiers.
• Providing guidance to national governments and international organizations on the use of electronic information systems to support implementation of international clinical care guidelines.
• Use of health information systems such as electronic medical records to improve health outcomes or program efficiency.

Education

Mr. Santas earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Emory University.