Douglas E. Henley, M.D.

Executive Vice President, American Academy of Family Physicians

Douglas E. Henley, M.D. serves as executive vice president for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and is on the TransforMED board of directors. As executive vice president, Henley serves the AAFP as chief executive officer. He also provides representation for the AAFP to other organizations, including medical, public and private sectors, and he serves on the board of directors of the AAFP Foundation, the charitable arm of the AAFP. He was recently chosen to be one of the inaugural commissioners of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, created as an impartial panel to certify electronic health records and other health care information technology products.

Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services recently appointed Henley as commissioner of the American Health Information Community, formed to help advance efforts to reach President Bush’s call for most Americans to have electronic health records within ten years. Henley also recently served as one of the inaugural commissioners of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, created as an impartial panel to certify electronic health records and other healthcare information technology products. Henley also represents the AAFP as a founding member of the Ambulatory care Quality Alliance (AQA) Steering Committee, whose mission is to improve health care quality and patient safety through an organized approach to the implementation of physician performance measurement, data stewardship, and reporting.

Henley has been an AAFP physician member and volunteer since 1973. He was on the AAFP Board of Directors from 1991 – 1997, serving as chair from 1993 – 1994 and 1996 – 1997, and as president from 1995 – 1996. Prior to assuming the position of EVP, Henley was in private practice for 20 years in his hometown of Hope Mills, N.C. He is the first practicing family physician to be named EVP and the first AAFP past-president and board chair to serve in that position.

Henley has served on numerous AAFP commissions and committees addressing issues such as legislative and government affairs, public health, resident and student affairs, and the socioeconomic health care environment.

Henley is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, and the university’s family medicine residency program. He is board certified by the American Board of Family Practice and is an AAFP Fellow, an earned degree awarded to family physicians for distinguished service and continuing medical education.

Henley’s many appointments include serving on the editorial boards of Family Practice News and Journal of Family Practice; the American Medical Association Current Procedural Terminology Editorial Panel; the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment Advisory Panel on Technology, Insurance and the Health Care System; and the North Carolina Cervical Cancer Task Force. He is currently on the board of directors of the Annals of Family Medicine.