Becker's Healthcare is thrilled to recognize 30 chief innovation officers of hospitals and health systems.
Chief innovation officers have become vital to digital transformation efforts and initiatives to keep health systems on the cutting edge of delivering patient care. Innovation chiefs are tasked with creating a culture of innovation across the system, accelerating research and development and managing venture capital funds. They also oversee efforts to harness the ingenuity and creativity of team members to improve operations and clinical care.
Below is a list of chief innovation officers to know.
Contact Randi Haseman at rhaseman@beckershealthcare.com to recommend a leader for this list. To learn more about the information industry and engage in lively debate about the future, join us at Becker's 7th Annual Health IT and Revenue Cycle Management Conference in October - register here.
Stefan Agamanolis, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer of Akron Children's Hospital (Ohio). Dr. Agamanolis joined Akron Children's Hospital in 2010. In his current position, he oversees the organization's Innovation Center, which engages in collaborations and joint-development partnerships with outside organizations, commercializes inventions and supports internal strategic planning and problem-solving. His expertise includes telehealth, telemedicine, patient relations, and interpreter services, among many others.
Derek Angus, MD. Chief Healthcare Innovation Officer at UPMC. Dr. Angus was appointed chief healthcare innovation officer at UPMC earlier this year. He leads UPMC's efforts to make care decisions wisely and learn fast to accelerate changes in patient care. He is also responsible for efforts to blend clinical care delivery with medical research, artificial intelligence and computer, social and behavioral sciences. He has a background in machine learning, behavioral economics and clinical analytics.
Jessica Beegle, Chief Innovation Officer of LifePoint Health (Brentwood, Tenn.). Ms. Beegle joined LifePoint Health as chief innovation officer earlier this year. In her role, she'll deliver more care to patients at home and in their communities while leading LifePoint's health tech startup incubator. Her experience includes leading consumer health for Google, founding Amazon Web Services' healthcare and life sciences business and leading commercialization for Walgreens Health's consumer and tech-focused healthcare business.
Nancy Cibotti, MD. Chief Innovation Officer of Beth Israel Lahey Health (Cambridge, Mass). Dr. Cibotti became the chief innovation officer of Beth Israel Lahey Health in 2020 after serving as the senior medical director of care development and innovation and regional medical director for two years. Dr. Cibotti has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare field, beginning as a primary care physician.
Dean Chang, PhD. Interim Chief Innovation Officer of University of Maryland Medical System (Baltimore). Dr. Chang became the interim chief innovation officer earlier this year and will oversee the innovation, entrepreneurship, intellectual property and technology commercialization enterprise to support the faculty and students. His passion is cultivating the innovator and entrepreneurial mindset inside others through design thinking, lean startup, and team-based experiential learning. Through his years of experience, he's discovered and developed his own entrepreneurial mindset, created and coached experiential innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum for a wide range of individuals, from high school students to working professionals, and created the core haptic technology found in most products from Sony, Microsoft, Apple, BMW, LG and Samsung.
Chris Coburn. Chief Innovation Officer of Mass General Brigham (Boston). Mr. Coburn leads a team of 125 people focused on the worldwide commercial application of Mass General Brigham's discoveries. He oversees efforts for investing, company creation, innovation management, licensing and industry collaborations. Mr. Coburn's efforts have led to more than $130 million commercialization revenue annually, and the health system has spun off more than 225 companies under his leadership. His team also manages a nearly $200 million venture fund.
Diane Comer. Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Technology Officer at Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.). Ms. Comer's responsibilities include managing the organization's ifnormation technology vision, strategy and execution. She leads a system of over 6,000 systems. She drives the introduction of new digital technologies to improve access for care.
Eduardo Conrado. Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of Ascension (St. Louis). Mr. Conrado leads Ascension in aligning the portfolio, investments and actions to thrive as chief strategy and innovation officer. So far, he's directed the launch of a new customer relationship management tool that allows Ascension staff to access more personalized information. He oversaw the launch of video consultations and online home monitoring. Mr. Conrado has previous experience as chief digital officer at Ascension and executive vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer at Motorola Solutions.
Kolaleh Eskandanian, PhD. Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Children's National Hospital (Washington, D.C.). Since 2008, Dr. Eskandanian has served as the vice president and chief innovation officer at Children's National Hospital. There she oversees the Office of Innovation Ventures, the Sheikh Zayed Institute's research and development operations, and leads in the development of the Children's National Research and Innovation Campus. With her focus on addressing the unmet medical needs of children, her expertise includes product development, as she is the lead inventor of the first-ever adverse event reporting system.
Rachel Feinman. Vice President of Innovation, Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital. Ms. Feinman became the vice president of innovation of Tampa General Hospital in 2021 after serving as the executive director of Florida-Israel Business Accelerator for three years. With a passion for influencing the strategy for impactful innovation, she currently leads innovation and oversees the organization's venture investment strategy.
Thomas Graham, MD. Chief Innovation Officer of Kettering Health (Dayton, Ohio). Dr. Graham, a world-renowned orthopedic hand surgeon, joined Kettering Health in 2021. He focuses on defining and translating the creative, innovative culture established in the company's spirit and ensuring the organization continues to deliver quality care to its customers. He holds over 60 patents, published over 100 scholarly articles, and founded four medical device companies.
Elizabeth Hagerman, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director, Isthmus, Project of UW Health (Madison, Wis.). Dr. Hagerman became the chief innovation officer of UW Health in 2020 and since then has been responsible for providing vision and leadership in developing UW Health's innovation accelerator, Isthmus Project. She also established an innovation network connecting UW Health, the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and other partners. Her experience includes product development, biotechnology, innovation and biotech startups and academic-industry partnerships.
Pankaj Jandwani, MD. Regional Vice President of Medical Affairs, Chief Innovation Officer of MidMichigan Health (Midland, Mich.). Dr. Jandwani has been employed by MidMichigan Health for more than 20 years but specifically has been the regional vice president of medical affairs and chief innovation officer starting in 2018. He is responsible for four inpatient facilities focusing on the health system's performance improvement program, informatics and quality analytics, and virtual health and innovation.
Mark Kandrysawtz. Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of WellSpan Health (York, Pa). Mr. Kandrysawtz joined WellSpan Health in 2020 after founding Benjamin Bond, a health care innovation consultancy. He focuses on pushing WellSpan Health's agenda to shape the company's experience for existing and new consumers by creating innovative products and services.
Rebecca Kaul, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer of MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston). Dr. Kaul has been chief innovation officer of MD Anderson Cancer Center since 2015. She leads the innovation efforts to design new strategies, business models and experiences at the organization. She also develops strategic relationships with startups in the digital health space. Dr. Kaul spent time as chief innovation officer of UPMC and president of the Technology Development Center at UPMC before joining MD Anderson.
Jeff Keller. Chief Innovation Officer of University of Virginia Health System (Charlottesville, Va.). In 2016, the University of Virginia Health System named Jeffrey Keller its first chief innovation officer. In this role, he'll be a facilitator between clinicians and researchers while identifying, developing and determining the effectiveness of new technologies and treatments. These responsibilities are designed for the organization to focus on the discovery of the betterment of the human condition.
Omkar Kulkarni. Chief Digital Transformation Officer and Chief Innovation Officer, Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Mr. Kulkarni joined Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 2018 as the hospital's first-ever chief innovation officer and became the chief digital transformation officer in 2021. As the chief innovation officer, he oversees the Children's Hospital Los Angeles Digital Health Lab, Center for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics, KidsX digital health accelerators and the Office of Virtual Care. In addition, Mr. Kulkarni is responsible for finding successful new methods of care, incubating new medical tools and software and rallying communities in and out of the hospital to solve pediatric problems.
Benjamin Maisano. Chief Innovation and Digital Officer of Atlantic Health System (N.J.). Mr. Maisano joined the Atlantic Health System in 2020 as the chief innovation and digital officer. In these roles, he designs and implements digital roadmaps, fosters an entrepreneurial spirit in the team that will drive strategic innovation, and evaluates investment opportunities.
Karen Murphy, PhD, RN. Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer and Founding Director of the Steele Institute for Health Innovation at Geisinger (Danville, Pa.). Dr. Murphy has devoted her career to innovation and transformation in healthcare. She spent time as Pennsylvania's secretary of health to address the big health issues in the state before joining Geisinger. As chief innovation officer, Dr. Murphy leads efforts for innovation across the 13-hospital system.
Mallary Myers. Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Augusta (Ga.) University Health. Ms. Myers became the first vice president and chief innovation officer of Augusta University Health in 2020. With more than a decade of experience as a leader in clinical innovation solutions, Ms. Myers is responsible for promoting a culture of innovation across the health system while looking for new ways to help the patients build healthier futures.
Jamie Nelson. Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Hospital for Special Surgery (New York City). Ms. Nelson became the senior vice president and chief innovation officer of the Hospital for Special Surgery in 2015. Her healthcare career extends into hospital operations, performance improvement, cybersecurity and technical infrastructure. Her experience in hospital administration, hospital operations and management allowed her to establish an IT strategy to support the organization's strategic roadmap and double the number of staff while creating leadership positions like CMIO and CTO.
Lisa Prasad. Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Henry Ford Health System (Detroit). Ms. Prasad joined the Henry Ford Health System in 2013 as a managing director and transitioned into the vice president and chief innovation officer in 2020. With a passion for high quality, accessible healthcare and higher education, she's responsible for leading technology development, corporate business and product development.
Roy Rosin. Chief Innovation Officer, Penn Medicine (Philadelphia). Since 2012, Mr. Rosin has served as the chief innovation officer at Penn Medicine to identify, shape and implement improvements in patient health outcomes and patient experience while testing for potential new revenue streams. Before Penn Medicine, Mr. Rosin was the vice president of innovation at Intuit. He managed Intuit Brainstorm to turn ideas into actions and outcomes for small teams to pursue new opportunities to get into the market and experiment rapidly.
Roberta Schwartz. Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Houston Methodist. Ms. Schwartz joined Houston Methodist in 2001 after spending time as director of business development at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She oversees innovation at Houston Methodist, focused on transformation in clinical care, research and operations through digital technologies, artificial intelligence and data sharing.
David Shulkin. Chief Innovation Officer of Sanford Health (Sioux Falls, S.D.). Mr. Shulkin became the chief innovation officer of Sanford Health in 2019 after serving as the ninth secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. His long history in healthcare has prepared him for his role as a strategic advisor on Sanford Health's national growth strategy and public policy efforts, a director on the Sanford International Board and an ambassador for Sanford.
Bill Sheahan. Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President at MedStar Health and Executive Director of the MedStar Institute for Innovation (Columbia, Md.). Mr. Sheahan just celebrated one year as chief innovation officer at MedStar Health. He's worked at MedStar Health since 2013 in multiple different roles. He began his career as a paramedic.
Jolynn Suko. Chief Innovation and Digital Officer of Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, Ind.). After joining Parkview Health in 2015 as the senior vice president of neurosciences, Ms. Suko became the chief innovation officer in 2019 and the chief digital officer in 2021. She works to leverage telehealth, informatics, research and analytics to promote innovation in the company.
Mary Tolikas. Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston). Ms. Tolikas was appointed as the chief innovation officer and senior vice president this year at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. With more than 20 years of experience in establishing and growing technology-based organizations, she is responsible for leading and accelerating the organization's innovations through identifying discoveries and forming collaborative partnerships to move the information from the laboratory to the clinic quicker.
Geoff Vince, PhD. Executive Director of Innovations at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Vince joined Cleveland Clinic in 2011 as chair of biomedical engineering and was named executive director of innovations in 2021. He oversees the combination of Cleveland Clinic's technology development strategies with scientific and research priorities to support medical treatment and drug discovery. He has 12 patents and several U.S. Department of Defense grants for his research laboratory.
Jason Wells. Chief Strategy Officer of Adventist Health (Roseville, Ca). Mr. Wells has executive oversight of strategy, innovation, digital and virtual health, patient experience and is responsible for transforming Adventist Health into a digital first, consumer focused organization.
Richard Zane, MD. Chief Innovation Officer of UCHealth (Aurora, Colo.). Dr. Zane became the chief innovation officer at UCHealth in 2016. He focuses on developing the novel industry and venture relationships through partnering with a diverse group of businesses to bring innovative solutions to healthcare.