Topeka ? Marcia Nielsen, assistant vice chancellor at Kansas University Medical Center, was named Monday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to chair a new panel charged with streamlining the state’s health care programs.

Also, Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, appointed to the new Kansas Health Policy Authority E.J. “Ned” Holland Jr., a vice-president for Sprint, and Joe Tilghman, who recently retired as regional administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Kansas City, Mo.

House Democratic Leader Dennis McKinney, of Greensburg, appointed Susan Page, the president and chief executive officer at Pratt Regional Medical Center.

Nielsen will lead the authority, a nine-member group that will focus on better health care delivery while saving tax dollars.

More appointments, both by Sebelius and legislators, will be made soon.