When Omar Gonzalez stepped into his role as chief technology officer for information technology and clinical engineering at Orlando Health a little more than 100 days ago, he inherited an organization that had already taken a bold step by integrating clinical engineering with IT.
His mission now is to take that union further, ensuring technology at the bedside and beyond keeps pace with the industry’s rapid digital evolution.
“What we technologists call the edge, the technology that lives either facing our patients or in the hands of our clinicians, continues to evolve really quickly,” Mr. Gonzalez told Becker’s. “From smart patient rooms to virtual care devices, these tools don’t fit neatly into traditional IT or biomed categories anymore.”
To meet that evolution, Orlando Health is launching a new business unit that merges staff from clinical engineering, IT field support and other pockets of technical expertise. The goal is to create hybrid teams capable of supporting both hardware and software in increasingly complex care environments.
“We’re creating a department under the CTO that brings together talent from both sides,” he said. “It lets us build teams that can handle everything from MRI systems with embedded software to virtual care tools without having to broker resources across departments.”
The move is the latest phase in Orlando Health’s nearly decade-long effort to break down silos between its technology disciplines. By blending the skill sets of clinical engineers and IT specialists, Mr. Gonzalez said the organization can better manage technology that now lives in the gray area between biomedical and digital infrastructure.
Balancing strategy and speed
Joining the organization at the close of its fiscal year gave Mr. Gonzalez an immediate crash course in both long-term planning and near-term execution.
“I like to be strategic,” he said. “But I also had to do some quick baselining, what are we spending on, what contracts are renewing and where can we optimize right now?”
He approaches the CTO role through two lenses: the strategic, long-term view of building a world-class, efficient technology environment, and the short-term focus on cost control and operational agility.
“It’s almost like having two lenses,” he said. “The long-term lens of transformation and the short-term lens of optimization. That balance is something every new CTO in healthcare has to navigate.”
Laying the groundwork for AI
Artificial intelligence is also top of mind, but Mr. Gonzalez emphasized that successful AI initiatives depend on a strong digital foundation.
“If your EHR systems are not up to par, you need to look at that first,” he said. “For any emerging technology to be effective, your systems have to have kept up.”
To that end, Orlando Health hired a new chief data and AI officer and established a cross-functional AI governance committee led not just by IT, but by physicians, operators and administrators.
“We’re being very intentional about AI,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “It’s important that our patients know we’re not replacing clinical decision-making, but assisting it.”
Redefining tech leadership
As Mr. Gonzalez looks to the future, he sees the role of technology leaders in healthcare expanding beyond traditional IT boundaries.
“You’re going to see more leaders from diverse backgrounds, physicians, nurses, finance experts, stepping into technology leadership roles,” he said. “Technology has become a commodity, and the idea that every IT leader comes from computer science is becoming outdated.”
That shift, he said, reflects a larger cultural change across healthcare.
“Technology leaders have come out of the shadows,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “If you want to perform at the top, your technology team has to be part of your strategy, not just the back office.”
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