CMIOs and CNIOs are constantly looking for new avenues to enhance patient care by melding clinical care and digital transformation. In their roles, they strategically integrate informatics solutions that best serve patients, providers and their organizations as a whole. Here are 58 CMIOs and CNIOs to know.
Note: This list is not exhaustive, nor is it an endorsement of included leaders, organizations or associated healthcare providers. Organizations cannot pay for inclusion on this list. We extend a special thank you to Rhoda Weiss for her contributions to this list.
We accepted nominations for this list. Contact Anna Falvey at afalvey@beckershealthcare.com with questions or comments.
Deborah Abram, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for Baptist Health (Jacksonville, Fla.). As CMIO at Baptist Health, Dr. Abram leads clinical transformation, EHR optimization and quality improvement across the six-hospital system. She first joined the system in 2020, coming from Wolfson Children’s Hospital, which is also in Jacksonville. A board-certified pediatric hospitalist and clinical informaticist for over 35 years, she played a pivotal role in Baptist Health’s Epic EHR integration, unifying patient health and financial records into a seamless, systemwide platform. To enhance physician efficiency, she also launched Baptist Health’s “physician builder” program, streamlining workflows to reduce administrative burden and support top-of-license practice.
K. Nadeem Ahmed, MD. Executive Chief Medical Information Officer for Valley Health System (Paramus, N.J.). As executive CMIO at Valley Health System, Dr. Ahmed leads the implementation and optimization of health IT to enhance clinical workflows and patient care. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare systems across the nation and globally, he has established a reputation for strengthening health IT governance and aligning technology with provider needs. At Valley Hospital, a newly opened, patient-centered facility, he has overseen the integration of the Meditech Expanse platform, leveraging advanced network infrastructure and sustainable design to optimize both clinical and administrative functions. Before joining Valley Health, Dr. Ahmed served as global CMIO for The Aga Khan University in Pakistan, where he established the organization’s first multinational health informatics department, to support high-quality patient care, medical education and research. Additionally, his tenure as chief consultant for Meditech EHR implementation from 2012–20 allowed him to develop governance strategies, optimize physician workflows and enhance EHR usability for healthcare organizations worldwide.
Eric Alper, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Quality Officer and Chief Clinical Informatics Officer for UMass Memorial Health (Worcester, Mass.). As senior vice president, chief quality Officer and chief clinical informatics officer at UMass Memorial Health, Dr. Alper leads systemwide quality improvement, clinical informatics and digital transformation. He played a pivotal role as the primary clinical champion for Epic EHR implementation and optimization, helping the system earn Epic 10-star status for three consecutive years, stage 7 recognition from Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and CHIME’s “Most Wired” designation. Under his leadership, the system’s hospital at home program became a national leader, ranking top 10 in volume and earning the 2022 American Academy of Home Care Medicine “Hospital at Home Program of the Year” award. A champion for health equity, Dr. Alper helped implement an automated social determinants of health screening that identifies social needs in over 10% of patients. Additionally, his actionable findings team has significantly improved safety outcomes and reduced claims, while helping UMass Memorial Medical Center enhance its CMS star rating from 1 to 4 stars.
Robert Bart, MD. CMIO of UPMC (Pittsburgh). Dr. Bart became the CMIO of UPMC in 2017, having previously served as the first CMIO of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and CMO at Cerner Corp. He oversees the health system’s efforts to boost the use of EHRs and other technologies to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care. Furthermore, Dr. Bart oversees UPMC’s industry-leading efforts to advance the use of EHRs.
Edwina Bhaskaran. Chief Clinical Systems and Informatics Officer of Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.). Ms. Bhaskaran is responsible for clinical informatics across Mayo Clinic’s campuses. She spent nearly five years at Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health as a leader in clinical informatics before joining Mayo Clinic in 2021 as CNIO. She then took on the chief clinical systems and informatics officer role for the system. Ms. Bhaskaran also has experience at Cleveland Clinic as a member of the IT executive team, where she helped lead the system through its first regional enterprise Epic implementation at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
James Blum, MD. Chief Health Information Officer of UI Health Care (Iowa City, Iowa). Dr. Blum joined UI Health Care in December 2020 after serving as an assistant professor of anesthesia and biomedical informatics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. He supports UI Health Care’s efforts to develop information systems that improve care delivery. Dr. Blum is a trained computer scientist and licensed by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in clinical informatics.
Alina Brebene, MD. Vice President and Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Jackson Health System (Miami). Dr. Brebene joined Jackson in 2015 as vice president and CMIO. She is responsible for Jackson’s health informatics platform, which includes the design and implementation of various technologies to advance the goals of the system. She is responsible for closing the loop control system for consulting ordering and reporting processes, the Covid-19 ordering process and vaccinations, utilization rules and securing messaging implementation using Cerner Messenger. She has also designed and redesigned consult notes to automatically complete consult orders. Under her leadership, Jackson has achieved Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society level seven validation for their efforts to advance health and wellness. Dr. Brebene is board-certified in clinical informatics, internal medicine and ECFMG.
Lauren Bruckner, MD, PhD. Chief Medical Information Officer at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Buffalo, N.Y.). In her role as CMIO, Dr. Bruckner leads initiatives that enhance patient engagement and digital health, while continuing her practice as a pediatric hematologist-oncologist. She also serves as a professor of oncology and pediatrics. Board-certified in clinical informatics, she is at the forefront of a pilot program exploring the use of AI to assist physicians in compiling case notes. Dr. Bruckner serves on the board of HEALTHeLINK, the health information exchange for Western New York, promoting interoperability with community providers. With a wealth of experience gained from nearly 20 years in clinical care and medical informatics roles, she joined Roswell in 2021 and has developed a robust clinical governance structure to prioritize projects and enhance communication across specialty clinics.
Jennifer Carpenter, DNP, RN. System Chief Nurse Informatics Officer for University Hospitals (Cleveland). With over 30 years in nursing and extensive leadership experience in both clinical operations and health IT, Dr. Carpenter serves as system CNIO at University Hospitals. She leads technology-driven strategies to enhance patient safety, reduce caregiver burden and optimize nursing workflows. Under her guidance, the system transitioned to Epic EHR, a two-year transformation that improved clinical decision support and operational efficiency. She is also spearheading the “UH Intelligent Hospital Room” project, integrating AI, virtual nursing and remote acute care technology to reimagine care delivery models. Her pandemic-era leadership in the system’s hospital incident command system introduced iPads for patient-family communication. Beyond informatics, Dr. Carpenter holds dual leadership roles as CNO for UH MacDonald Women’s Hospital and UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, both based in Cleveland.
Romil Chadha, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for University of Kentucky HealthCare (Lexington). As UK HealthCare’s CMIO, Dr. Chadha plays a vital role in enhancing patient care, optimizing clinical systems and advancing physician engagement with technology. Under his leadership, the system achieved a 50% reduction in best practice advisories, from 1.4 million to 700,000 per month, reducing alert fatigue and improving clinical decision-making. He also expanded the physician/APP builder and informatics program by 50%, introducing new analytics roles and Epic Cosmos superuser badges to foster deeper clinical engagement with informatics. To strengthen informatics governance, he implemented a dual associate ambulatory CMIO model, ensuring dedicated leadership in both ambulatory and inpatient services. A pioneer in using EHR log data, Dr. Chadha has also developed best practices for performance insights, helping providers improve efficiency and care quality.
Neal Chawla, MD. CMIO of WakeMed (Raleigh, N.C.). Dr. Chawla became the CMIO of WakeMed in 2018, taking responsibility for the system’s clinical informatics on technology adoption, data analytics and more. He spent a decade as associate CMIO and associate CMO for clinical effectiveness at Fairfax, Va.-based Inova before coming to WakeMed.
Eric M. Cheng, MD. Chief Medical Informatics Officer at UCLA Health (Los Angeles). As CMIO at UCLA Health since 2016, Dr. Cheng leads initiatives to enhance provider experience, care quality and health IT usability across the system. A board-certified neurologist and clinical informaticist, he oversees more than 150 team members, including a 20-plus physician informatics team and two clinical informatics fellowship programs. His leadership has driven AI-powered clinical tools, such as ambient listening for outpatient visits and automated InBasket replies, improving workflow efficiency. Additionally, he has championed financial transparency efforts, integrating real-time prescription benefits, cost alerts and lab/imaging test restrictions. A professor in the department of neurology, Dr. Cheng continues to bridge clinical expertise with digital transformation, helping to shape informatics, AI and precision medicine at UCLA Health.
Jessica Collins. Chief Nursing Information Officer for University of Kentucky Healthcare (Lexington). As CNIO at UK HealthCare, Ms. Collins bridges nursing practice and technology, advising the chief nurse executive and leading the clinical informatics and IT education departments. In her first year, she spearheaded EHR optimizations that resulted in a 12% increase in best practice advisory actions, a 50% reduction in nursing admission documentation and a half-million-click reduction in three months. She also launched the nurse manager “Thrive” training program, which improved Epic utilization, dashboard engagement and workflow efficiency, earning her an invitation to present at the Epic users group meeting. A former pediatric critical care nurse and educator, she brings 12 years of frontline experience to her informatics leadership.
Kristin Conley, DO. Chief Medical Information Officer for Frederick (Md.) Health. Serving as CMIO at Frederick Health, Dr. Conley drives cutting-edge digital health initiatives that enhance patient care, clinician efficiency and health equity. With over 18 years as an internal medicine physician, she is board-certified in internal medicine and obesity medicine and also serves as medical director of the medical weight loss program. Under her leadership, Frederick Health has implemented a precision medicine program, integrating genomics into Meditech Expanse EHR to personalize treatments based on patients’ genetic profiles. She is also spearheading AI-driven solutions to reduce administrative burdens and combat clinician burnout, ensuring physicians can focus more on direct patient care. A strong advocate for health equity, Dr. Conley has led initiatives to incorporate social determinants of health data into patient records, using analytics-driven workflows to improve access to essential resources. She is also a fellow of the American College of Health Data Management.
Russ Cucina, MD. Chief Health Information Officer for UCSF Health. Dr. Cucina is responsible for UCSF Health’s analytics, software and information infrastructure and leads the clinical informatics teams. He also has executive leadership over provider services, information technologies and strategic partnerships at the system. He is simultaneously vice president for genetic and genomic services at the system. He has more than 20 years of experience as a physician leader building a transparency-, trust-, empathy- and results-driven organization. He leads more than 400 employees working to improve the health system’s business and consumer and patient experience.
Shannon M. Dean, MD. Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.). Dr. Dean arrived at St. Jude in 2022, aiming to enhance the hospital’s clinical applications and informatics team and increase clinician engagement. Since then, she has helped to oversee the launch of the health system’s new Epic EHR. The launch was a truly collaborative effort, with 1 in 5 employees at St. Jude actively engaged in the implementation. St. Jude earned Epic’s “Good Install” award and achieved a 9-star rating. The implementation team was internally awarded the St. Jude “Clinical Care Improvement” award thanks to the positive impact the transition has made on clinical care and patient experience. Dr. Dean brings expertise to her role with 17 years of health IT experience, board certification in clinical informatics and clinical experience as a pediatric hospitalist. She is a member of Epic’s Children’s Health Leadership Council and is a regular speaker at various conferences and webinars. Her efforts in governance, as well as clinical and operational engagement, have earned St. Jude high marks in the KLAS Arch Collaborative survey, with 97% of St. Jude respondents feeling they have a voice in shaping the EHR.
Babatope Fatuyi, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer at UTHealth Houston. Dr. Fatuyi joined UT Health in 2019 after spending three years as CMIO at NYC Health + Hospitals. He brings extensive history in operational and IT leadership at all levels of clinical informatics to his role. He also chairs the EHR governance taskforce, helping to approve, direct and prioritize EHR designs and content decisions in pursuit of optimized patient care. He is also the steering committee chair of the UTHealth Houston’s Center for Digital Healthcare Innovation.
Laura Fitzmaurice, MD. Vice President and Chief Health Informatics Officer of Children’s Mercy Kansas City (Mo.). Dr. Fitzmaurice is the vice president and chief health informatics officer of Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Previously, she was the division chief of emergency medical services from 2000 to 2009 and associate chair of clinical affairs for the Department of Pediatrics from 2006 to 2009. Dr. Fitzmaurice has been involved nationally in health information technology as a member of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals advisory committee, as well as a member of the Kansas and Missouri regional Health Information Exchange-Lewis and Clark Information Exchange board.
Priscilla Frase, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for Ozarks Healthcare (West Plains, Mo.). With over 19 years as a hospitalist and more than a decade in clinical informatics leadership, Dr. Frase has played a pivotal role in transforming care delivery at Ozarks Healthcare. She has led the integration of specialty-focused programs, including behavioral health, into a unified EHR platform, improving care coordination and efficiency across the rural health system. By implementing a uniform patient record, she has ensured that critical data, like medications, allergies and behavioral health history, is seamlessly accessible to providers, enhancing decision-making and patient safety. Under her leadership, Ozarks Healthcare ranked in the 100th percentile in seven out of 10 EHR support metrics categories in the KLAS Arch Collaborative survey, marking the impact of her initiatives on clinician satisfaction and system usability. She was also instrumental in Ozarks becoming a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, a federal designation that led to the creation of a crisis stabilization center and plans to hire 20 additional therapists. Dr. Frase was recognized as a 2024 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society “Senior Executive Changemaker in Health”.
Peter Greene, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore). Dr. Greene focuses on informatics in cardiothoracic surgery and spent time as chair of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ IT committee. He also founded the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network, a community of 40 professional cardiothoracic surgery societies, where he continues to serve as executive editor. In addition, he co-founded the MedBiquitous Consortium, a nonprofit international medical professionals group to advance healthcare education with technology standards.
Mandy Grubb Halford, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Covenant Health (Knoxville, Tenn.). As Covenant Health’s senior vice president, CMIO and CMO, Dr. Halford drives clinical innovation, digital transformation and quality improvement across the health system’s nine hospitals and 1,500-plus affiliated physicians. Under her leadership, Covenant Health achieved its best-ever clinical quality measures in 2023, earning “zero harm” awards for eliminating hospital-acquired infections and Leapfrog “A” safety grades in 2024. She spearheaded the implementation of tele-ICU and advanced care at home, expanding virtual monitoring and remote hospital-level care to improve patient outcomes and access. Additionally, she co-led Covenant Health’s systemwide EHR integration, optimizing clinical workflows and physician training. A board-certified internist and informaticist, she also played a key role in establishing the system’s first family medicine residency program in 2024.
C. William Hanson III, MD. Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer at Penn Medicine (Philadelphia). In 1990, after completing medical school, residency and fellowship within the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and hospitals, Dr. Hanson joined Penn Medicine as an anesthesiologist. He became the system’s CMIO in 2010 and continues to serve as a professor of anesthesiology and critical care, surgery and internal medicine. He is a member of the American Medical Center Consortium and American College of Physicians.
Louis Harris, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for Citizens Memorial Hospital (Bolivar, Mo.). At Citizens Memorial Hospital, Dr. Harris combines his expertise in family medicine and clinical informatics to enhance health IT strategy and EHR optimization. As CMIO, he focuses on streamlining clinical workflows, improving physician efficiency and supporting patient-centered technology initiatives. He also remains actively involved in patient care at the Bolivar Family Care Center, ensuring that digital solutions align with real-world clinical needs. Under his leadership, Citizens Memorial has expanded significantly, adding new specialty clinics, a health and wellness center, and a mobile integrated healthcare program, all supported by his oversight of the Meditech Expanse EHR implementation. A strong advocate for EHR personalization, he has spearheaded training initiatives to help physicians optimize workflows, reducing administrative burden. Nationally recognized for his expertise in AI-driven clinical efficiency, he has presented at Meditech’s Clinical Informatics Symposium and Meditech LIVE 2024, sharing insights on AI-powered documentation and workflow innovations.
Sherri Hess. Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.). With nearly four decades in healthcare, Ms. Hess, currently vice president and CNIO at HCA Healthcare, has led major advancements in clinical informatics across multiple organizations. Recognized for her leadership, she was named a Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society “Changemaker in Health” for 2022. She also received the prestigious “Nightingale Luminary Award” in 2017. In addition to her executive role, she has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver since 2011, shaping future healthcare IT leaders. Her tenure on the Colorado HIMSS Board, including a term as president when the chapter was designated “chapter of the year”, reflects her commitment to advancing health technology on a broader scale.
Ben Hohmuth, MD. CMIO at Geisinger (Danville, Pa.). Dr. Hohmuth spent time as the section chief of hospital medicine at Englewood (N.J) Hospital and Medical Center before joining Geisinger in the same role. He was named associate CMIO in 2017 and took on the CMIO role a year later. He aims to foster innovation for more customized care and improved workflows in the health system’s EHR.
Allen Hsiao, MD. Chief Health Information Officer at Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health System. Dr. Hsiao is CMIO of the health system, where he focuses on leveraging informatics and EHR to support research, optimize systems and improve care transitions. He is the primary investigator or co-investigator on multiple funded studies examining how IT can affect healthcare delivery. In his role, Dr. Hsiao helps lead EHR optimization initiatives, clinical research informatics, and the application of AI tools at the bedside. The system’s inaugural CNIO also reports to Dr. Hsiao. He also serves as vice chair in the new department of biomedical informatics and data science at Yale. He is a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, serving on medical informatics committees.
Louis Jeansonne, MD. CMIO at Ochsner Health (New Orleans). Dr. Jeansonne is responsible for the design, implementation and use of healthcare IT on a systemwide level at Ochsner’s 46 hospitals and more than 370 care centers. He also ensures that IT is being used to improve patient care, safety and outcomes. He has both a clinical and an IT background, helping Ochsner pilot a new generative AI tool that helps providers more efficiently respond to patient questions. Dr. Jeansonne is a board-certified surgeon and has been on staff at Ochsner since 2008.
Michael Josey, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for Grand Lake Health System (St. Marys, Ohio). For nearly 30 years, Dr. Josey has served as a primary care physician at Grand Lake Health System. He has also simultaneously led health IT advancements as CMIO for the past decade. Dr. Josey’s primary aim is to optimize IT workflows, reduce provider burden and improve patient care outcomes. Under his leadership, the system replaced three disparate EHR systems with a single, streamlined Sunrise EHR, eliminating duplicate entries, improving communication and enhancing provider efficiency. He spearheaded Compass integration, centralizing task management, patient-provider messaging and high-priority notifications to enable uninterrupted workflows. A champion of clinical decision support, he and his team developed over 150 medical logic modules, created sepsis alerts and introduced population health tools for risk stratification and social determinants of health documentation. His EHR-driven quality initiatives earned overwhelmingly positive feedback from the National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations hospital accreditation survey, with surveyors calling the system “impeccably built.”
S. Douglas Kanis, DO. Chief Medical Information Officer and Chief of Staff for Pella (Iowa) Regional Health Center. With over 17 years at Pella Regional Health Center, Dr. Kanis has been a driving force in clinical excellence and healthcare technology integration. As CMIO and chief of staff, he has led efforts to enhance clinical efficiency, streamline workflows and improve patient care. His focus on EHR optimization ensures that clinicians have the tools they need at the point of care, reducing administrative burdens and allowing for more meaningful face-to-face patient interactions. Additionally, in his role as director of echocardiography and cardiac services, he has advanced cardiovascular care initiatives to strengthen specialized treatment options for the community. A member of Meditech’s physician advisory committee, Dr. Kanis actively influences EHR usability and physician satisfaction, shaping software enhancements that benefit healthcare providers systemwide.
Lauren Koniaris, MD. Vice President and Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.). Dr. Koniaris is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician. She has been vice president and CMIO of Hackensack Meridian Health since 2018, bridging the gap between IT and clinical teams. Her efforts focus on making sure clinical workflows and processes lead to safe and effective patient care while EHRs are implemented at hospitals across the system. Under her leadership, the health system aims to leverage the EHR to positively affect care delivery.
Clara Lin, MD. Associate Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer for Seattle Children’s. Serving as CMIO at Seattle Children’s, Dr. Lin leads a 15-member medical informatics team, driving health IT innovation, clinician wellbeing and workflow optimization. She co-founded Seattle Children’s AI review board and led the development of the hospital’s first AI use cases, ensuring responsible AI governance in clinical applications. Under her leadership, the EHR support and optimization program has enhanced usability and clinician satisfaction, contributing to a 20-plus point improvement in Seattle Children’s KLAS Net EHR Experience score. A clinical associate professor at the University of Washington’s department of pediatrics, she also serves on the Seattle Children’s care network board, shaping strategic initiatives for pediatric care. A nationally recognized thought leader, Dr. Lin also engages in global speaking engagements and has been published in JAMA.
Julie Luengas, DNP, RN. Chief Nursing Informatics Officer of Stony Brook (N.Y.) Medicine. Dr. Luengas is CNIO for Stony Brook Medicine, where she advances clinical quality and patient safety through optimal IT-enabled clinical initiatives as they relate to nursing. She owns the strategic vision for technology’s integration in the clinical practice and workflow. Dr. Luengas serves as the translator and liaison for nursing informatics and other healthcare professionals. She brings more than 20 years of informatics experience to the role, having previously served as the vice president of informatics and CNIO of St. Louis-based Saint Thomas Health, now Ascension.
Mark Mabus, MD. Chief Medical Informatics Officer and Vice President of EHR for Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, Ind.). As CMIO and vice president of EHR at Parkview Health, Dr. Mabus drives workflow optimization, clinical decision support and physician education through Epic EHR innovations. His leadership has positioned Parkview as a key partner with Epic, piloting point-of-care tools and the “best care choices” module, making it one of only four health systems testing the new functionality. In 2024, Parkview earned magna cum laude status in Epic’s “Honor Roll Good Maintenance Grant Program”, joining an elite group of only seven health systems to achieve this distinction. Recognized across the U.S. for his contributions, Dr. Mabus serves on the Epic physicians advisory council board and earned the “PACademy” award for his role in shaping education for over 400,000 physicians. A passionate educator, he employs gamification, humor and storytelling to engage clinicians, leading national webinars, keynote presentations and training content that enhances EHR usability and provider efficiency.
Steve Magid, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer at Hospital for Special Surgery (New York City). Dr. Magid is a rheumatologist with a focus on improving the digital experience for patients and community members. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association and the Healthcare Information and Management System Society. Dr. Magid also chairs the quality research center at HSS and is co-chair of the system’s quality coordinating committee.
Nicole Martinez. Chief Nursing Information Officer for RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, N.J.). Ms. Martinez, CNIO at RWJBarnabas Health, drives strategic clinical optimization across New Jersey’s largest healthcare system. She leads the Nursing and Allied Health Collaborative, a 650-member group responsible for prioritizing clinical changes, resulting in over 1,500 evidence-based optimizations in the past year. During her tenure, the system successfully integrated Epic’s AI cognitive computing early warning system, contributing to an estimated 500 lives saved since April 2023. Addressing the IV fluid shortage, she helped establish data-driven protocols that reduced overall usage by 40%, with non-trauma facilities achieving a 70% reduction while minimizing procedure postponements. Her collaboration with quality leadership facilitated EHR-based alerts for Clostridioides difficile protocols, reducing infection rates by 49%. Ms. Martinez has also overseen the systemwide transition to Epic EHR, reduced nonactionable clinician alerts by 10% and implemented Lippincott procedures to standardize evidence-based clinical care across the organization.
David McSwain, MD. System Chief Medical Informatics Officer at UNC Health (Chapel Hill, N.C.). Dr. McSwain is a professor of pediatric critical care medicine at UNC Children’s Hospital in addition to his role as CMIO. He is also co-founder of an organization focused on supporting pediatric research on telehealth outcomes and utilization. Dr. McSwain has experience in digital health, clinician wellness, patient engagement and patient safety. In 2018, Dr. McSwain earned the American Telemedicine Association Champion Award for innovation in telehealth.
Gregg Nicandri, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center. Dr. Nicandri, CMIO at the University of Rochester Medical Center, leads clinical informatics for the $5 billion, eight-hospital health system. He has built a robust informatics team that enhances provider adoption of technology, improving both patient outcomes and clinician experience. Actively practicing as an orthopedic surgeon, he brings firsthand insight into the impact of digital transformation on clinical workflows. His leadership has been instrumental in advancing the medical center’s enterprise data analytics and digital health strategies, driving high-value care across the system. Additionally, he co-led the health equity and anti-racism technology program, aligning technology initiatives with the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion action plan.
Brett A. Oliver, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for Baptist Health (Louisville, Ky.). As a clinical leader in health IT at Baptist Health, Dr. Oliver oversees the optimization and strategy of the Epic EHR, ensuring its efficient and effective use across the system. He leads the ambulatory training and support team, the Epic mastery team, and systemwide digital health initiatives, including the development of AI governance processes. A skilled collaborator, he bridges technical and operational teams to enhance clinician workflows and patient experience. His five-year tenure on the federal health IT advisory committee showcased his ability to align technology with national healthcare goals. Drawing from his years as a primary care physician, Dr. Oliver aims to drive innovation that improves care delivery and digital transformation at Baptist Health.
Stephen O’Mahony, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer at RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, N.J.). Dr. O’Mahony serves as senior vice president and CMIO at RWJBarnabas Health, leading IT integration and development for the largest academic health system in the state. Overseeing the transition to a unified Epic EHR across 14 hospitals and 9,000 physicians, he has spearheaded advancements in clinical decision support and population health. His leadership in implementing Epic’s AI cognitive computing early warning system for patient deterioration has contributed to an estimated 500 lives saved since April 2023, achieving a 17% overall mortality reduction. In response to the national IV fluid shortage, Dr. O’Mahony and his team established data-driven procedures through Epic, reducing product usage by 40% systemwide while minimizing care disruptions. His dual expertise in medicine and technology has been instrumental in optimizing clinical operations, driving high-reliability initiatives and strengthening enterprisewide IT governance. A fellow of the American College of Physicians, he also holds leadership roles on multiple executive committees and innovation boards.
Jake O’Shea, MD. Vice President and Chief Health Information Officer for HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.). As vice president and chief health information officer at HCA Healthcare, Dr. O’Shea leads clinical informatics strategy across 188 hospitals in the U.S. and U.K., driving EHR optimization, interoperability and regulatory compliance. He serves as executive sponsor of HCA Healthcare’s multi-year Meditech Expanse program, overseeing a 500-member team to implement a new system that enhances caregiver workflows and patient outcomes. With over a decade in emergency medicine and leadership roles spanning CMIO, CMO and division CMO, he bridges clinical and administrative needs to advance technology-driven care delivery. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he played a pivotal role in establishing vaccine clinics and guiding 19 hospitals through crisis response. A strong advocate for leadership development, he founded the capital division physician leadership development program, training more than 100 physicians in key leadership principles.
Natalie M. Pageler, MD. Chief Health Informatics Officer for Stanford Children’s Health (Palo Alto, Calif.). As chief health informatics officer at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, Dr. Pageler drives clinical informatics, digital health innovation and AI integration to transform pediatric care. She leads Stanford’s clinical informatics fellowship, as well as the digital health and translational data science programs, ensuring that cutting-edge data-driven solutions improve patient outcomes. A national advocate for pediatric health IT, she serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Child Health Informatics Center physician advisory committee, focusing on adolescent privacy and digital engagement. Under her leadership, AI-powered clinical decision support has enhanced care for complex congenital heart disease, Type 1 diabetes and prenatal care. Passionate about the 21st Century Cures Act, she is developing AI algorithms tailored for pediatric patients to balance privacy, autonomy and access. Dr. Pageler’s work helps ensure that technology supports, rather than replaces, human connection in healthcare.
Deepti Pandita, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer and Vice President for Clinical Informatics for UCI Health (Orange, Calif.). A national leader in clinical informatics, Dr. Pandita is vice president for clinical informatics and CMIO at UCI Health, where she drives AI governance, digital transformation and clinician efficiency initiatives. She played a pioneering role in the field, establishing the first clinical informatics fellowship in Minnesota and becoming the nation’s first female fellowship program director. At UCI Health, she has implemented AI-driven tools to streamline patient messaging, ambient documentation and administrative workflows. A strong advocate for health equity, she focuses on bridging digital disparities to improve access for underserved populations. Over the next five years, her vision is to create a seamless, patient-centered digital experience to integrate scheduling, at-home care and interoperability solutions. She recently co-authored an American College of Physicians position paper on AI in healthcare, influencing policy and innovation at a national level.
Nishit Patel, MD. Vice President and Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital. Since taking on the role of vice president and CMIO at Tampa General Hospital, Dr. Patel had led technology integration, AI strategy and virtual care expansion across a rapidly growing six-hospital health system with 150-plus locations. Under his leadership, the system successfully unified 17 urgent care centers, 22 imaging sites and 25-plus ambulatory locations onto a single Epic EHR instance, ensuring seamless provider access. He spearheaded the integration of Nuance DAX Copilot ambient listening AI, improving clinical efficiency for over 500 physicians while reducing documentation burden. Passionate about patient-centered innovation, he designed the “patient room of the future” program, piloting transformative care technologies such as virtual nursing and inpatient teleconsultations. A double-board-certified dermatologist and clinical informaticist, he also serves as a professor at USF Morsani College of Medicine, combining academic expertise with hands-on digital health leadership.
Alexander Petron. Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer for WellSpan Health (York, Pa.). Dr. Petron, vice president and CMIO at WellSpan Health, drives health informatics innovation to enhance patient care, clinical efficiency and operational strategy. His leadership has been instrumental in the integration of AI-driven solutions, including Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience, which reduces clinician “pajama time” by automating clinical documentation, improving physician work-life balance and patient engagement. To address staffing shortages, he introduced virtual patient safety and virtual nursing programs, leveraging machine learning to optimize clinical resources and improve patient outcomes. In genomics, he spearheaded the Gene Health Project, a collaboration with Helix, building a regional genomic dataset to advance personalized medicine. Before joining WellSpan in 2022, Dr. Petron served as vice president and CMIO at SolutionHealth and spent over a decade at Manchester, N.H.-based Elliot Health System, balancing pediatric primary care and medical informatics leadership. His career, which began as a pediatric hospitalist, has been shaped by his passion for technology-driven healthcare transformation.
Robin Plank, DO. Chief Medical Information Officer for Independence Health System/Butler Memorial Hospital (Butler, Pa.). As CMIO at Independence Health System/Butler Memorial Hospital, Dr. Plank has championed the use of EHR optimization to improve both clinician efficiency and patient care. With over 20 years of experience in family medicine, she has led efforts to streamline documentation, ensuring staff complete their work without taking charts home after long shifts. Her focus on patient engagement tools has strengthened chronic disease management, particularly through enhanced communication via the patient portal. By helping diabetic patients track glucose and A1C readings more effectively, she has demonstrated the power of technology in improving long-term health outcomes. Dr. Plank prioritizes the human experience in healthcare, balancing the use of data with personalized, patient-centered care.
Ed Sankary, MD. Chief Health Informatics Officer at UTHealth San Antonio (Texas). Dr. Sankary is the chief health informatics officer for UTHealth San Antonio. His background in enterprise EHR, informatics, governance, analytics, business intelligence, population health, ACOs and clinical integration inform his current role. In his position, he is integral to the UTHealth enterprise, providing clinical leadership and steering systemwide initiatives like an analytics and AI program. He chairs the AI Collaborative for Healthcare and serves as the chief medical officer for UTHealth Health San Antonio Regional Physician Network.
William Sewell, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for Phoebe Putney Health System (Albany, Ga.). As CMIO at Phoebe Putney Health System, Dr. Sewell leads health IT initiatives that enhance care quality, clinician efficiency and patient safety across a 41-county region. A practicing OB/GYN for over 20 years, he brings firsthand clinical expertise to technology-driven healthcare transformation. One of his most impactful projects was Phoebe Putney’s collaboration with Meditech to develop an obstetric hemorrhage management toolkit, designed to reduce maternal mortality by standardizing care pathways and improving risk screening. The toolkit integrates patient registries, surveillance and advanced clinical logic to help providers identify and manage at-risk patients throughout the continuum of care. In addition to his CMIO role, Dr. Sewell serves as medical director of women and children’s services for the system and as medical director for Phoebe Health Partners, ensuring that technology innovations align with clinical best practices. He is also a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Sachin D. Shah, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer for UChicago Medicine. Since joining UChicago Medicine in 2010, Dr. Shah has played a leading role in digital transformation and patient-centered innovation. Serving as CMIO since 2022, he has driven initiatives in AI-powered clinical documentation, digital equity and virtual care models, reshaping healthcare delivery across Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. Under his leadership, 600 providers have adopted ambient AI for clinical documentation, with plans to expand to 1,000 providers by early 2025, significantly improving clinician wellness and patient experience. A national expert in telehealth policy, he spearheaded UChicago Medicine’s virtual care program, which facilitated over 200,000 visits in its first year. His leadership also extended to Covid-19 vaccine deployment efforts, ensuring equitable access and high vaccination rates on Chicago’s South Side. In addition to his informatics work, Dr. Shah serves as an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics, practicing as a full-time general internist and pediatrician.
Jill Sheipline, BSN, RN. Vice President and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for Corewell Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.). As CNIO at Corewell Health, Ms. Sheipline has led a statewide Epic EHR integration, unifying Spectrum and Beaumont Health EHR platforms in under a year, which has enhanced communication, safety and efficiency across the system’s hospitals throughout Michigan. Since assuming her current role in December 2022, she has driven health IT transformation by ensuring a seamless transition to a single digital ecosystem. With a previous leadership role as vice president of clinical informatics at Beaumont Health, she brings extensive expertise in order set management, workflow optimization and system integration.
Mark Snowise, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer of Berkshire Health System (Pittsfield, Mass.). With over 27 years of experience as a board-certified family physician, Dr. Snowise brings both clinical expertise and strategic oversight to his role in health informatics. As CMIO at Berkshire Health Systems, he leads technology integration efforts that enhance clinical workflows, physician efficiency and patient care. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he successfully managed the EHR go-live across 42 ambulatory practices, impacting more than 180 providers and ensuring a seamless transition to digital records. His emphasis on customizable tools, such as the summary screen and “get all data” functions, has significantly streamlined documentation, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient interactions. By collaborating closely with IT, medical and executive teams, he ensures that technology supports regulatory compliance, operational efficiency and data security. Before stepping into his current role, Dr. Snowise practiced family and sports medicine, bringing firsthand clinical insight to his leadership in health IT transformation.
Maritza M. Suarez, MD. Chief Medical Informatics Officer for University of Miami Health System. Dr. Suarez is CMIO for the University of Miami Health System, where she leads the strategic implementation of health IT to enhance clinical efficiency and patient outcomes. She has spearheaded the integration of advanced EHR systems, optimizing clinical workflows while championing innovations such as telemedicine, mobile health and AI. Through a data-driven approach, she has fostered a culture of analytics-driven decision-making, improving resource allocation and patient care. Actively mentoring residents and students, she ensures the next generation of clinicians is proficient in health IT and data utilization. As president of the medical staff and an associate professor of medicine, Dr. Suarez plays a critical role in aligning health IT initiatives with institutional goals and fostering collaboration across stakeholders. Her dual board certification in clinical informatics and internal medicine allows her to meld technology and patient care with both expertise and empathy.
Donna Summers, RN, MSN. Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for Henry Ford Health (Detroit). Ms. Summers has been CNIO for Henry Ford Health since 2017. She leads the nursing service in the safe implementation of novel technologies and directs major projects related to nursing efficiency and revenue improvement. She liaises with system leaders to leverage medical, health and operational data in pursuit of enhanced quality and operational outcomes. Among many recent accomplishments, she developed the Nursing Workforce Challenge in 2022 to help reduce nurse burnout. Now, she is leading the provision of iPhones to nurses in the acute care setting, to allow them quicker access to documentation and workflow programs. Her execution of this bedside mobile program, paired with her line validation efforts and a partnership with the Arch Collaborative research organization, has resulted in Henry Ford Health nurses ranking in the 73rd percentile for EHR satisfaction. Ms. Summers is also integral to the multidisciplinary virtual intensive care unit workgroup, working to help remote clinicians provide bedside partners with real time support.
Jeffrey Sunshine, MD, PhD. Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer for University Hospitals (Cleveland). With a background in both clinical practice and health IT leadership, Dr. Sunshine serves as CMIO at University Hospitals, where he bridges the gap between providers and technology. He brings expertise in AI, telemedicine and predictive analytics to his role. He was instrumental in the system’s enterprisewide Epic EHR implementation, which transformed workflows for 27,000 caregivers, 5,000 providers and 50-plus modules, leading to Epic gold stars level 10 recognition within a year of go-live. His initiatives extend beyond EHR optimization, having also driven enterprise imaging solutions, clinical portals and a data warehouse to enhance patient care, research and business intelligence. A diagnostic and interventional neuroradiologist, he also holds leadership roles as professor and executive vice chair of radiology, ensuring clinical relevance in IT strategy.
Paul Testa, MD. Chief Health Informatics Officer of NYU Langone Health (New York City). Dr. Testa is the chief health informatics officer at NYU Langone Health as of December 2024. Dr. Testa leads the MCIT Department of Health Informatics, which stewards clinical, nursing, and research informatics; digital health innovation; informatics educational programs; digital health equity; applied AI; and health IT safety efforts. He and the team of informaticists work with all levels of leadership, clinicians, researchers, educators, and operations to transform and advance the delivery of the highest quality care via innovative and equitable digital health solutions. The informatics team is critical in the health system’s strategic efforts. He is also an assistant professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine at NYU Langone Health. His areas of academic interest include digital health, health informatics, risk management, and emergency medicine.
Ravi Tripathi, MD. Chief Health Information Officer for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (Columbus). As chief health informatics officer at Wexner Medical Center, Dr. Tripathi leads digital transformation, EHR optimization and clinical workflow innovation across medical, nursing and pharmacy disciplines. He has been instrumental in deploying the EHR to enhance patient care, teaching and research, all while ensuring technology initiatives align with institutional goals. A board-certified clinical informaticist and cardiovascular intensive care specialist, he recently spearheaded the implementation of DAX CoPilot for physician transcription, improving efficiency, patient satisfaction and provider work-life balance. In addition to his informatics leadership, he co-founded the RossFit wellness initiative, leveraging technology to support employee wellness. Previously, he served as founding director of Ohio State’s division of critical care anesthesiology.
Vinay Vaidya, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer for Phoenix Children’s. Phoenix Children’s CMIO, Dr. Vaidya, assumes a balanced approach to EHR utilization and implementation, with patient outcome the very top priority. He and his team use EHR data to streamline patient care and achieve meaningful clinical outcomes by extracting, analyzing and synthesizing data in a way that provides actionable insights. Every scrap of patient data is homed in the organization’s internally developed data warehouse, where Dr. Vaidya has developed more than 50 custom-built dashboards. These dashboards are used across the ambulatory, inpatient, emergency room, operating rooms and intensive care units, and allow the team to respond with agility to clinical needs. The data that Dr. Vaidya has collected with remote patient monitoring has led to the establishment of a malnutrition app, a diet therapy app, a cleft palate app, a leukemia app, and WATCHER, a digital surveillance program that alerts clinicians when a hospitalized child is at risk of deterioration. In addition to serving as CMIO, Dr. Vaidya is also a pediatric critical care medicine specialist.
Donna Wellbaum, MSN, RN. Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at UCLA Health (Los Angeles). In her role as CNIO at UCLA Health, Ms. Wellbaum leverages 25 years of experience to drive technology integration, patient safety and nursing innovation. She leads a board-certified, Epic-certified informatics team, overseeing a 50-member clinical training group to enhance EHR adoption and efficiency. Under her leadership, UCLA Health launched a real-time EHR alert system to reduce workplace violence, improving staff safety and situational awareness. Her “giving back time” initiative streamlined nursing documentation, allowing clinicians to dedicate more time to direct patient care, increasing both patient satisfaction and nurse retention. A leader in AI-driven nursing solutions, she heads an AI nursing focus group, ensuring safe and effective integration of emerging technologies.
DuWayne Willett, MD. Associate Vice President and Chief Health Information Officer at the University of Texas Southwestern Health System (Dallas). Dr. Willett has helped UT Southwestern to develop information systems and databases for its Dallas Heart Study. He is also a professor in the university’s department of internal medicine’s division of cardiology. He has published a number of articles on heart valve disease and medical informatics. He also co-led a Southwestern team that earned an innovator award from Healthcare Informatics magazine. He has also been instrumental in Southwestern’s AI journey.