Merge Healthcare has chosen Cheryl Whitaker, MD, MPH, to serve as the company’s first chief medical officer (CMO).

As CMO, Whitaker will help guide new product strategy and act as a liaison between clinician-focused industry associations and the Chicago-based health IT company. Whitaker was recently appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to the board of directors for the Illinois Health Information Exchange Authority.

She attended Washington University School of Medicine and received her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston prior to serving as an associate professor of preventive medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.