Executive Perspectives from CHIME’s 2005 Spring CIO Forum

CHIME’s first major networking and educational event of the year, the 2005 Spring CIO Forum, was a resounding success! 380 attendees gathered at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, TX to enjoy CHIME’s unique brand of networking and education. Thanks to all attendees for making this one of our most successful Forums ever. For those of you unable to attend, a summary of highlights follows:

On Saturday, golfers played the course (despite a few spring showers) at the TPC Four Seasons Resort. The award-winning golf club is home to the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, a PGA TOUR event. Networking continued on Saturday evening at a welcoming reception for all attendees at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.

Sunday began with keynote speaker and Intel CEO Dr. Craig Barrett. Dr. Barrett’s interactive presentation highlighted the use of digital technology in healthcare around the world, with a focus on how information technology is erasing the previous boundaries exerted by time and space. He demonstrated how specific technology solutions are moving healthcare forward with the assistance of several special guest participants, including video and on-stage appearances by CHIME members Mark Zielazinski, CIO at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA; Dr. Rob Kolodner, acting CIO, Department of Veterans Affairs; and Tim Stettheimer, Vice President and CIO at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, AL. His message was clear and concise: The digitization of healthcare must be accelerated in order for the US to remain competitive in the international arena.

Many forum attendees have asked for more information about Dr. Barrett’s keynote. If you’d like to learn more about his presentation, please send an email to intel.in.healthcare@intel.com.

Michael Earl, Professor of Information Management at the University of Oxford followed with a timely presentation on the changing role of the CIO. He discussed the changes the role has undergone over the last several years, the largest being the movement from technical to executive. The CIO role, in his opinion, has been overextended yet undervalued, and the challenge to healthcare organizations is to unilaterally recognize the CIO as a strategist who is an inextricable member of the executive team – especially now that IT is being appropriately viewed as a vehicle for transformation at healthcare organizations worldwide.

Following a networking luncheon, John Halamka, CIO of CareGroup Health System and the Harvard Medical School provided a comprehensive overview of the various components driving change in the healthcare IT landscape today. Dr. Halamka reviewed the development of the latest regional and national organizations promoting IT adoption and integration in healthcare, defined the characteristics of successful data sharing organizations, and described what CIOs can do today to prepare for the demands of tomorrow. He stated that the challenges that CIOs face today are much more operational and political rather than technical, and that CIO participation and executive support will be among the most important keys to success.

The day came to a close with a dynamic presentation by best-selling author Joseph Grenny. In “Crucial Conversations – Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High,” he proposes that any time you’re feeling “stuck,” there’s a crucial conversation holding you there. Through the use of small group activity and interaction, Mr. Grenny helped participants to identify individual situations in which a crucial conversation may be required. He maintains that problems become chronic because of an inability to confront, discuss, and resolve issues - and that the most successful confrontations are often at the peer-to-peer level and are both candid and respectful. Each attendee received a copy of Mr. Grenny’s book, and we hope all of you were inspired to improve your workplace and home environments with crucial conversations of your own.

The annual Spring Forum raffle was held immediately following the Forum. Our congratulations to the following raffle winners:

Hal Scott - Portable DVD Player provided by DST Technologies
Thomas Kerwin - Portable DVD Player provided by ClearCube Technologies
Glenn Fell - Tablet PC provided by Motion Computing
Kent Maurer - 42" Plasma TV provided by API Software, Inc.

Thanks to all who attended for making this Forum another outstanding CHIME event. We look forward to seeing you at the Fall CIO Forum in October!

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