Ryan Howells is a nationally recognized expert in digital health policy and interoperability. Based in Leavitt Partners’ Washington, D.C. office, he collaborates with the private sector, the White House, Congress, HHS, and the VHA to improve health care nationwide. His team at Leavitt Partners wrote a whitepaper in March 2025 called Kill the Clipboard! A Federal Policy and Industry Roadmap to Accelerate Innovation and Cut Administrative Waste.

Since 2016, Ryan has co-led the CARIN Alliance (www.carinalliance.com) which has driven advancements in consumer-directed exchange. CARIN’s work has been adopted by every CMS payer and provider in the country, cited as an “industry best practice” in multiple federal regulations, named in the 2025 CMS Health Tech Ecosystem announcement, and honored with a World Changing Idea Award from Fast Company magazine.

In addition, Ryan partners with CMS and NCQA to advance digital quality measures, works with the Utah Governor’s Office on the nation’s first statewide multi-payer, multi-provider FHIR API interoperability initiative, and collaborates with the VHA and Clinical Architecture on development of the PIQI Alliance (piqiframework.org) to assess patient data quality. A strong advocate for digital identity federation in health care since 2017, he has also contributed to public health data modernization efforts with the CDC and ONC. His mission is to ensure the right data reaches the right person at the right time and place to drive meaningful improvements in health care outcomes.

Previously, Ryan served as General Manager of a digital health product company and now holds board and advisory roles with multiple healthcare and educational organizations. He is a member of the CMS MITA Governance Board, Vice Chair of the Carequality Steering Committee, a DirectTrust Board member, and a member of the HL7 FAST Identity Tiger Team. He holds an MHA from USC and a BA from BYU. Ryan resides in Georgia with his wife, Alison, and their five children.