SZD Health Law Scan : Health Care Lawyers & Attorneys : Schottenstein Zox & Dunn Law Firm : Strategic Planning, Managed Care, Insurance : Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Central Ohio

The National Institutes of Health, a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approved the first human embryonic stem cell lines under the new NIH Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research. According to the NIH's press release, the NIH has approved 13 lines and an additional 92 lines are awaiting the NIH's review.

The NIH Guidelines were released on July 7, 2009 to implement President Barack Obama's executive order issued earlier in the year that removed the limitations on the use of federal funds for human stem cell research. The limitations had been established through an executive order issued by President George W. Bush in 2001.

For more information on President Obama's executive order and its impact on stem cell research, please see SZD's article "Campaign ‘08 and the Obama Administration’s Rejuvenation of Stem Cell Research" as published in Life Sciences, A Publication of the American Health Lawyers Association.

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On April 8, 2009, President Obama signed an executive order establishing a White House Office of Health Reform (OHR) that will spearhead the Obama Administration's policy agenda for health care. The principal functions of the OHR include providing leadership for and coordinating the development of the Administration's agenda; working with Congress, various executive departments and agencies, and State, local and community policymakers and public officials; and monitoring the implementation of the agenda.  If requested by the OHR Director, executive departments and agencies are required to designate a liaison to work with the OHR.

The executive order also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish its own Office of Health Reform within the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate closely with its White House counterpart.

President Obama has appointed Nancy Ann Min DeParle as the first Director of the OHR. During the Clinton Administration, DeParle served as the Associate Director for Health and Personnel at the White House Office of Management and Budget and as the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, which is now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Before joining the Clinton Administration, she served as the Tennessee Commissioner of Human Services and worked as a lawyer for a law firm in Tennessee. Since leaving the Clinton Administration, DeParle is reported to have served on the board of directors of various medical device companies, such as Boston Scientific and MedCo.

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