David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s top health IT official, is leaving to return to Harvard University. He has been on the job for a little less than two years.

Information Week reports Blumenthal announced his decision in a memo to staff, saying he’d intended to stay only two years when he accepted the job. AndKaiser Health News reports that Harvard rules mean he’d lose tenure there if he didn’t return within two years.

Blumenthal oversaw the development of some of the characteristics that electronic-medical record systems must have in order to qualify hospitals and physicians for as much as $27 billion set aside by the economic stimulus bill.

The so-called meaningful use requirements for the first round of funding were finalized last year, and the first checks for those who qualify went out last month.

But those requirements have been criticized as too tough to achieve, especially in a relatively short time frame. A recent survey of hospital chief information officers found a decline in the percentage who expect to quickly qualify for the first round of incentive payments for implementing digitized health-record systems. Some 89% plan to qualify for stimulus funds before Sept. 30, 2012, when the first stage of the incentive program ends, however.

Meantime, there’s still a heated debate about the benefits that electronic medical records can provide, particularly for physicians and hospitals quickly purchasing and ramping up new systems to qualify for incentive payments.

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