Highlights from CHIME’s 2000 Spring CIO Forum
CIO Leadership

Nearly 300 attendees (members of the College, Foundation, press, and invited guests) gathered at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, TX on April 9 to participate in the 2000 Spring CIO Forum. The Forum provided a setting for which attendees could network and participate in discussions related to this year's topic, "CIO Leadership". Thanks to all who attended for making this one of the most successful Forums ever! For those of you unable to attend this year's Spring CIO Forum, here’s a summary of highlights: 

 
Jeffrey Immelt, President and CEO of GE Medical Systems, gave an enlightening and thought-provoking keynote address on “Leadership & The Healthcare CIO”. Acknowledging that the healthcare CIO has “a tough job”, he stressed that information must continue to be a core value of every hospital and health system. According to Immelt, the role of the CIO must also change as three important jobs merge into one…that of technology, process, and organization leader. He then defined and discussed the components of a leadership model found effective in his own organization – metrics, process, standards, structure, and organization – and suggested that this model “may” also prove effective for healthcare CIOs as well. Disadvantaged by a lack of industry standards and organizational support to drive new technology, the new CIO “must succeed”, he said, and good leaders can make it happen. His recipe for leadership: build alignment (focus tasks and measure outcomes), build adaptability (tolerate risk and promote change), and build a winning culture (recruit and retain great people – the foundation for everything). 

Howard Charney, Vice President of Cisco Systems, followed with a lively and multimedia-rich presentation focusing on the positive impact of the Internet on the healthcare industry and the tremendous leadership opportunities that lie ahead for healthcare CIOs. Outlining some of the drivers of change in the healthcare setting…HIPAA, BBA, industry consolidation, and the swing from a provider-centric to consumer-centric model, Charney then shifted focus on how the Internet is radically changing the way we “work, live, play, and learn”. According to Charney, surprisingly only 40% of healthcare organizations have an articulated Internet strategy, however, consumerism and increasing competition will drive healthcare organizations to adopt new, Internet-driven business models and utilize the Internet to achieve greater levels of efficiency and productivity, re-engineer business processes, strengthen business relationships, and satisfy growing consumer demands.

The post-lunch session, “Managing Discontinuous Technologies”, featured an energetic and passionate presentation from Professor F. Warren McFarlan of Harvard University. According to professor McFarlan, never before in his past 42 years of IT experience “has there been a year like the year 2000 and the next two years that stand ahead of us”. Driven by the explosive advances in Internet-enabled technologies, an information revolution is putting extraordinary pressures on executives who are “dealing with a very deep and very profound discontinuity in IT applications”. Managing these discontinuous technologies and leading your organizations into the future, he stated, “requires a very different set of management practices and leadership skills” than those suitable in the past. Through case example he showed how leading organizations as HEB, Cisco Systems, and Charles Schwab are adapting to the new challenges. What is the key to effective management of these new, disruptive technologies and processes? Leadership. Driven from the uppermost executive levels within the organization.

In the final session of the day, “Take Me To Your Leader”, Dr. Gordon Kingsley, Vice President of Development from Health Midwest, shared his experience and research in organizational leadership. According to Dr. Kingsley, “the management of information and of information systems is the most important and maybe the essential element of organized life, and it is at the core of healthcare, therefore, putting healthcare CIOs are at the center of it all”. He discussed the importance of leadership as being critical to the success of any human endeavor, and described five fundamental qualities that characterize the life and work of all effective leaders – have a vision for your organization and always think BIG, communicate your ideas effectively, work and then work harder still, persevere – keep going when others tell you to stop, and believe. Effectively using story, poetry, and song to solidify the concepts, his final message to attendees, “go for it!”, provided a fitting and uplifting conclusion to the day’s exciting program. 

The 2000 Spring CIO Forum was concluded with a prize raffle drawing. Congratulations to Johannes Thomsen, winner of a high-tech MP3 player from Nomad, and to Darrel Leonhardt and Philip Morlan who both won a home DVD player. Thanks to everyone for making this Forum such a great event!

TOP