AEHIX16 Fall Forum

George Hickman is Executive VP and System CIO for Albany Medical Center in New York’s Capital Region. George is responsible for overseeing all information technology and data analytics activities throughout the academic health sciences system, its hospitals, physician faculty practice, and medical college. Prior to joining Albany Med, he was a healthcare IT partner with Ernst & Young LLP.

This is George’s third academic CIO post. He also has worked with Price Waterhouse Coopers and started his career as a hospital project engineer. He has worked with health provider organizations across the US as well as for the Ministry of Health in Singapore and the U.K Health Authority and publishes frequently on healthcare IT and operational change topics.

He was awarded the 2007 CHIME/HIMSS John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year.

George is a former board chair, former foundation board chair, a charter member, the current education foundation board, and is a Life member and Fellow of CHIME.

He is past board chair, past executive compensation committee chair, and a Life Fellow member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). He is also a HIMSS Analytics past board member.

George is a board member for MedAllies, the service delivery organization Hudson Valley area HIE and a national HISP for Direct exchange and a past board member for the Health Information Exchange of New York (HIXNY). He sits on the Cerner Corporation CIO Strategic Advisory Council and the Allscripts Touchworks Executive Forum. He is an advisory board member emeritus for KLAS and sits on the editorial advisory board for healthsystemcio.com as well as several associational, local, state and vendor industry committees.

He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on a variety of health IT-related topics and has published extensively on a variety of health IT-related topics, including co-authoring, The Healthcare IT Planning Fieldbook.

He holds a Bachelor of Science and an Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University of Tennessee.

Analytics, big data and data visualization are changing healthcare at a rapid pace. In this session, Dr. Joel Selanikio will examine how healthcare can tap into these techniques to improve patient care. A practicing pediatrician as well as a technology innovator, Dr. Selanikio will talk about some of the immense challenges providers face in retooling their business models to meet the demands of a value-based delivery system. Importantly, he’ll examine the role information technology plays in helping providers delivery high-quality, low-cost care.

Speaker: Dr. Joel Salanikio, CEO, Magpi

Criminal attacks are now the leading cause of data breaches at healthcare organizations, according to the Ponemon Institute’s Sixth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy & Security of Healthcare Data. Cyber criminals have set their sights on healthcare and are constantly developing new and more sophisticated ways of penetrating network defenses. New vulnerabilities arise as virtually every device and record system are connected to a network; risks also persist inside an organization. IT Leaders must be prepared to work together in developing and managing effective security strategies to protect their organization’s valued data and physical assets including patient, employee and customer information. This session explores the current threat landscape and identifies best practices for protecting the organization and information vital to patient care and business operations. Experienced security leaders from law enforcement, patient care and standards will discuss the current challenges of cybersecurity and hygiene. The presenters will engage and inform attendees with a list of actions that they can take to make their organizations more secure.

Speakers: Karl West, CISO, Intermountain Healthcare
Gavin O’Brien, Computer Scientist, NIST
Erin F. Gibbs, Special Agent, FBI

From MACRA to Stage 3 Meaningful Use to cybersecurity, health IT policy received considerable attention from policy- and lawmakers in 2016. There’s sure certain to be even more focus on these programs with a new administration and Congress poised to take over in 2017. CHIME public policy experts will detail the legislative and regulatory changes that have impacted health IT policy this year, and look ahead to next year.

Speakers: Leslie Krigstein, Vice President of Congressional Affairs, CHIME 
Mari Savicks, Vice President of Federal Affairs, CHIME
Liz Johnson, MSN, FHIMSS, CHCIO, RN-BC, CIO, Acute Care Hospitals & Applied Clinical Informatics, Tenet Healthcare Corporation
Josh Kohrumel, MPH, Chief Data Officer, Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego
Matthew Werder, CTO, Hennepin County Medical Center

Telemedicine and telehealth have emerged as essential tools for providers in delivering accessible, cost-effective, high-quality care. Whether through an ACO or alternative care model, telemedicine/telehealth have greatly changed the landscape of healthcare. Although limited reimbursement for these technologies has stymied adoption to a certain extent, the potential benefits of telemedicine to help achieve the Triple Aim are profound. In this presentation, several leaders who have successfully implemented telehealth/telemedicine programs will share their experiences, both positive and negative, and detail the impact on applications, technology and security.

Speakers: Bridget Barnes, CIO, Oregon Health & Sciences University
Ed Martinez, Senior Vice President and CIO, Miami Children’s Health System 
Alicia Ribarich, Manager, IS Project Management Office, Orlando Health

There is no question that interoperability is a priority for providers and policymakers alike. The philosophy of letting “a million flowers bloom” in the healthcare IT standards world has created some challenges as the industry seeks to achieve interoperability. Information exchange challenges exist both within a healthcare organization, device-to-device or device-to-EHR, and when data is expected to flow between disparate providers. In this session, industry leaders will discuss how a standards-based approach to interoperability can improve how data is captured and exchanged by EHRs and medical devices and how an interoperable healthcare ecosystem will result in improved patient outcomes.

Speakers: Chuck Jaffe, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, HL7
Scott Cassidy, MBA, FACHE, Executive Vice President for Membership, Center for Medical Interoperability

CHIME and KLAS are partnering on a cybersecurity project to discover where the energy exists around cyber security in healthcare and provide insights into technologies and measures providers are taking to enhance their security program and better manage risk.  The survey will review the effectiveness of technology vendors and consulting firms and identify how well EHR vendors support providers’ security goals. This session will provide insights from the field base on early results from the survey and dialogue with healthcare IT executives and security experts.

Speaker: Garrett Hall, Research Director, Cyber Security, Implementation Services, KLAS Enterprises

For a variety of reasons, many healthcare organizations are looking for ways to get out of the business of storing data. While cloud computing has some benefits, it’s not without challenges and frustrations for healthcare IT leaders. This panel will share their business objectives in evaluating remote hosting options, and the methodologies by which they chose to implement or not implement cloud services.

Speakers: John Hamm, Director of Technology Support, CTO, Texas Children’s Hospital 
Jim  Stalder, Chief Technology Officer, Cook Children’s Health Care System
Peter Rock, Director of Technical Support Services, Kaweah Delta Health Care District

Delivery system and payment reforms are changing business models and driving us toward a value-based care environment. On top of that, consumerism and efforts to personalize care are forcing providers to rethink how they connect with patients. None of these changes can take place without technology, and IT leaders need to be fully engaged in crafting their organization’s strategic plan. What critical skills do IT leaders need to be an effective change agent? In this session, George Hickman explores how health IT leaders can truly drive delivery system transformation.

Speaker:George T.(Buddy) Hickman, Executive VP & System CIO for Albany Medical Center