Rab, Parent Among CIOs Honored At CHIME

In recognition of the efforts taking place at many organizations to move the industry forward, CHIME recognized a number of key healthcare IT leaders at the 2015 Fall Forum, including Shafiq Rab, MD, vice president and CIO at Hackensack University Medical Center, who was named CHIME Innovator of the Year.

HackensackUMC is one of the first health systems in the nation to link patient-generated data from personal fitness devices and mobile apps to its EMR, enabling clinicians to have a more complete view of a patient’s history. The organization has been at the forefront of adopting IT solutions designed to arm both clinicians and patients with information that can improve decision-making while reducing costs.

“Achieving interoperability is one of the industry’s biggest challenges and priorities,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell. “Through Shafiq’s efforts, we are seeing how greater connectivity between providers and patients can create more efficient and effective care delivery.”

HackensackUMC also teamed with Infor to develop and implement open, vendor-neutral standards as part of the Argonaut Project, as Rab believes the effort to speed up adoption of Fast Interoperability Resources (FHIR) will help promote better data exchange and drive efforts like President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

“Our collective actions have significantly improved access to health data by the patient, while at the same time improving patient satisfaction,” he said.

Also honored at the event were Brian Jacobs, MD, vice president, CMIO, and CIO at Children’s National Health System, and Patrick Anderson, CIO, Ochsner Health System, who received the 2015 Transformational Leadership Award.

At Children’s National, Jacobs was instrumental in helping the hospital install and launch its first EHR nearly a decade ago, and recently spearheaded the launch of the Bear Institute, the country’s first pediatric health IT institute.

At Ochsner Health System, Anderson has initiated several projects to help improve patient-centered care, including a telemedicine program that provides care expertise to 41 locations across 21 specialties His team is also focused on the use of advanced home-based monitoring technologies for patients with chronic conditions.

CHIME also recognized the efforts being led by Jaime Parent, associate CIO and VP of IT operations at Rush University Medical Center, to create the EN-Abled Veteran Internship Program, a job-training program for military veterans. To date, the program has helped place more than a dozen veterans in health IT positions throughout the Chicago region

Other honorees include the following:

John Showalter, CIO, University of Mississippi Medical Center, received the CHIME Collaboration Award for his team’s work with Jvion to leverage predictive analytics to identify patients at risk for acute myocardial infarction and enable early interventions.

Cindy Vely Cahill, managing partner, Pursuit Healthcare Advisors, LLC, was named 2015 Foundation Industry Leader for her work with CHIME’s Certified Healthcare CIO program and Performance Institute, as well as the Association for Executives in Health Information Applications.