As the role of digital technology has grown in hospitals and health systems in recent years, so too has the need for a dedicated executive to oversee all things digital.
Enter: the chief digital officer. Though more organizations have started adding CDOs to their executive rosters, it may still be unclear how, exactly, this role differs from that of a chief information officer, which candidates are best for the position and, most importantly, what a health system CDO does.
Find answers to those questions — and more — below.
1. What is the role of a chief digital officer?
In a health system, the CDO is responsible for overall digital transformation. Whereas a CIO oversees the technical implementation and operation of information systems, clinical systems, revenue cycle, analytics and more, the CDO operates on more of a cultural level, developing a digital strategy for an organization, fostering innovation and bringing automatization and other digital initiatives to the health system.
Though the CIO and CDO may experience some overlap in their roles and should certainly work in close partnership to further a health system's digitalization, many experts recommend that the roles remain separate, rather than being combined into one position.
In an article for Becker's Hospital Review earlier this year, Hillary Ross, JD, a senior partner at executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, described the "outward-facing role" of the CDO. "The chief digital officer is grounded in the awareness that patients are consumers and want to have choices in their healthcare," she wrote. "This role's focus is to leverage digital technology and create an ecosystem to keep and draw patients into healthcare delivery systems."
2. How does the role fluctuate among health systems?
While the overarching duties of a CDO are consistent across health systems, the role does differ between organizations, in both title and exact responsibilities.
Ascension's CDO role, for example, matches the aforementioned duties almost exactly. Upon the July 2018 announcement of Eduardo Conrado's hiring as executive vice president and CDO, the Edmundson, Mo.-based health system noted that he would implement digital initiatives and drive "the digital strategy, business transformation and operational change that will enable Ascension to accelerate the impact that it intends to achieve."
In contrast, in May, M.D. Anderson announced the hiring of David Jaffray, PhD, as its first chief technology and digital officer. According to a press release, he will work closely with the hospital's chief scientific officer and Strategic Industry Ventures program and will "direct the design, acquisition, management and implementation of an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure," all while also serving as a professor of radiation physics and imaging physics.
Navicent Health, too, has devised its own definition of a CDO. In February, the Macon, Ga.-based system named Omer Awan its chief information and digital officer. After serving as Navicent's CIO since 2016, Mr. Awan's role was therefore expanded to include the development of a digitalization strategy and platforms specifically for Navicent and Atrium Health's partnership.
3. How can CDO success be measured?
Whatever a CDO's title or day-to-day responsibilities, the ways in which the executive is evaluated remain consistent across the board. Stephanie Crabb, co-founder of healthcare advisory firm Immersive, wrote in Becker's Hospital Review in December 2018 that a CDO's performance can be assessed with the following questions:
- Have efficiencies been realized?
- Have expenses been reduced?
- Have new products or services been introduced?
- Have revenues increased?
- Are we in a better competitive position?
- Has business risk been reduced?
- Has customer experience improved?
4. Who is the ideal CDO?
According to Ms. Ross, a CDO's qualifications should include experience leading transformation both inside and outside of healthcare, a background in both IT and commercialization, the ability to bridge technical and clinical missions, an understanding of digital health and the opportunities and challenges associated with its deployment and a willingness to use vision and innovation to raise the level of healthcare in order to fully embrace consumerism.
That said, candidates presenting all of those qualities come from a wide array of backgrounds. Before joining Providence St. Joseph Health as CDO in 2014, Aaron Martin was previously at Amazon, where he worked in the publishing and media manufacturing sectors. Similarly, Ascension's Mr. Conrado worked at Motorola for several decades before joining the health system in 2018.
Mark Hulse, BSN, MSN, joined Duarte, Calif.'s City of Hope as CDO last year after serving as CEO of healthcare leadership advisory firm Theo Executive Group, while Dr. Jaffray was recruited by M.D. Anderson during his time as executive vice president for technology and innovation at University Health Network's Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.
5. How much does a CDO make?
Though no data about hospital-specific CDOs has been released, according to Glassdoor, the average CDO salary across all industries ranges from $244,000 to $302,000, while ZipRecruiter places the national average around $131,276. At the far end of the spectrum, in 2015, the Financial Times suggested that CDOs could command "£500,000 [$634,350] plus generous benefits."
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