Ryan Howells is a nationally recognized digital health policy and interoperability expert based out of the Leavitt Partners Washington, D.C. office, who regularly works with the White House, Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Veteran Health Administration (VHA). Since 2016, Ryan has led the CARIN Alliance, which has advanced consumer-directed exchange using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) application programming interfaces (APIs). CARIN’s work has been implemented in production across the U.S., named as an “industry best practice” in multiple federal regulations, and received a World Changing Idea Award by Fast Company magazine.

Ryan also works with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to advance digital quality measures, the Utah Governor’s office on their statewide FHIR interoperability pilot, and with Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on public health data modernization.

Ryan is a previous General Manager of a digital health product company and current board member for multiple health care companies. He also serves on the CMS Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) governance board, Carequality steering committee, ONC’s FAST Identity Tiger Team, and the steering committee of the Vaccination Credentialing Initiative.

Ryan has a Master of Health Administration from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University. He lives in Athens, GA, with his wife Alison and 5 children.