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Stoltenberg Consulting Awards Healthcare CIO Scholarship to Anna Pannier
Ascension Saint Thomas Health Senior Director Earns Stoltenberg Future Fund Scholarship for CHIME
Stoltenberg Consulting Inc., a leading healthcare IT consulting firm, announced today that Anna Pannier is the 2019 recipient of the Stoltenberg Future Fund Scholarship for secondary education through the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). Pannier is the senior director of Ascension Technologies, supporting Ascension Saint Thomas in Middle Tennessee.
The Stoltenberg Future Fund awards scholarships annually through the CHIME Education Foundation for recipient use at any of CHIME’s educational events, including the Healthcare CIO Boot Camp, Fall CIO Forum and CHIME/HIMSS Spring CIO Forum. The scholarship funnels necessary IT leadership expertise into healthcare organizations to impact meaningful patient outcomes, clinical care safety and secure data capture.
“I am passionate about helping people live their best lives, making healthcare sustainable and fostering trusting relationships,” said Pannier. “The Stoltenberg Consulting scholarship is a wonderful opportunity to expand my horizons and prepare me for changes taking place in the value-based care and wellness marketplace. I am tremendously appreciative to CHIME for the learning opportunities, resources, faculty and peer groups that serve as an important part of my ongoing development as I work to help transform healthcare.”
Stoltenberg Consulting pledged $50,000 to the CHIME Education Foundation over a span of 25 years. Pannier stands as the 11th scholarship recipient from the Stoltenberg Future Fund program since its inception in 2009. To be eligible for this scholarship, applicants must be CHIME members in good standing, express need for financial support for continuing education and describe their professional accomplishments and aspirations in the healthcare IT industry. Previous recipients include IT leaders from Dayton Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, UNC Health Care and Jackson Health System.
Pannier has been in the health IT industry for 23 years. She serves as the IT leader supporting Ascension Saint Thomas, an integrated delivery network made up of nine hospitals and 110 clinic sites across Middle Tennessee. She previously oversaw IT operations for Ascension St. John in Oklahoma, with responsibilities covering five hospitals and over 120 care locations. In these roles, she has optimized the clinician experience, led fully electronic charting transition and achieved HIMSS Stage 6 in the electronic medical record adoption model. Before her tenure with Ascension, Pannier helped form a community health record model for Carolinas HealthCare System’s (now Atrium Health) population health initiatives.
Stoltenberg has been an active CHIME Foundation firm for 12 years. Additional continuing education endeavors include the Consultant Development Program for recent college graduates, which offers mentorship, vendor training and hands on experience in the competitive health IT industry.
To learn more about the Stoltenberg Future Fund Scholarship, visit bit.ly/StoltenbergFutureFund.
About Stoltenberg Consulting
Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc., leads the health IT industry with a two-time Best in KLAS FlexSourcing staffing and help desk program that improves patient engagement, decreases physician burnout, enhances EHR end-user adoption and trims hospital IT support costs. FlexSourcing is an innovative multi-tiered service that flexes up and down to meet hospitals’ changes in IT systems, staff volume and skill mix for IT projects and operational needs. Averaging 15 years of experience, Stoltenberg consultants are skilled in both financial and clinical systems with best practice expertise for Cerner Millennium, Cerner Soarian, Epic, MEDITECH, NextGen, Allscripts and McKesson and customers. To see how Stoltenberg simplifies healthcare technology, visit www.stoltenberg.com.About Ascension Saint Thomas
In Tennessee, Ascension Saint Thomas operates nine hospitals in addition to a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures, medical practices, clinics and rehabilitation facilities that cover a 68-county area and employ more than 8,000 associates. Across the state, Ascension Saint Thomas provided more than $127 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2018. Serving Tennessee for 15 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension includes approximately 150,000 associates and 40,000 aligned providers. The national health system operates more than 2,600 sites of care – including 150 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 20 states and the District of Columbia, while providing a variety of services including clinical and network services, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, facilities management, risk management and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization. Visit healthcare.ascension.org.Media Contact
Shana Tachikawa
Stoltenberg Consulting
[email protected]
419-617-8341Posted 11.7.2019 -
CHIME and Digital Health Canada Launch Chapter in Canada
PHOENIX, AZ, Nov. 5, 2019 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and Digital Health Canada announced today that they have launched an international chapter in Canada. The announcement was made today at the CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix. Canada’s Health Informatics Executive Forum (CHIEF) will operate the chapter.“This is a great opportunity to collaborate with our friends in Canada to transform care throughout North America,” said Russell Branzell, president and CEO of CHIME. “By sharing best practices and resources, we will be able to truly advance health and care in our communities and around the world.”“We look forward to expanding our digital network and giving members in CHIEF access to CHIME’s educational programs, certifications, networking and more,” said Mark Casselman, CEO of Digital Health Canada. “We are thrilled to be able to take our long-time friendship to the next level with this partnership.”CHIME is a membership-based organization serving more than 3,200 chief information officers and senior healthcare executives in 56 countries. CHIME offers online and in-person educational and networking opportunities as well as accreditation through a domestic and international CHIME Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) program.CHIEF brings together more than 150 CIOs and senior healthcare leaders from healthcare delivery, government, and private sector organizations across Canada. CHIEF leaders exchange best practices and share their expertise with government and system stakeholders in setting the agenda for the effective use of digital to improve health and healthcare in Canada.CHIME now has 10 international chapters. This year, CHIME established chapters in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the UK after launching a chapter in India in 2017. In addition, CHIME has signed letters of intent for partnerships with organizations in Ireland and Israel.About CHIMEThe College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 3,200 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.About Digital Health CanadaDigital Health Canada connects, inspires, and educates the digital health professionals creating the future of health in Canada. Our 2500+ members are a diverse community of accomplished, influential professionals working to make a difference in advancing healthcare through information technology. Digital Health Canada fosters network growth and connection; brings together ideas from multiple segments for incubation and advocacy; supports members through professional development at the individual and organizational level; and advocates for the Canadian digital health industry. Digital Health Canada is also the home of Canada’s Health Informatics Executive Forum (CHIEF), serving more than 150 CIOs and senior leaders from healthcare delivery, government, and private sector organizations across Canada. digitalhealthcanada.comContactsCandace StuartDirector of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME734.665.0000Eileen McPheeCommunications Manager, Digital Health Canada416-277-8136Posted 11.5.2019 -
Encompass Health CIO Rusty Yeager and Cerner Receive 2019 CHIME Collaboration Award
PHOENIX, AZ, Nov. 5, 2019 – Imagine the letdown patients who have been released to a post-acute care facility experience when they must unexpectedly return to the hospital. Unplanned transfers from inpatient rehabilitation facilities to acute-care settings are not only inconvenient for patients, but also may be costly to post-acute care organizations, especially if they prompt a readmissions penalty from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Encompass Health, one of the largest providers of post-acute healthcare services in the U.S., partnered with its electronic health records supplier Cerner Corporation®, a global health platform and innovation company, to identify patients who are at risk of an unplanned acute-care transfer. The two entities then worked to develop a tool that will quickly alert clinicians. With an early warning, clinicians can provide timely intervention and reduce the likelihood of an unplanned transfer. The results have been promising:Encompass Health reported its lowest acute-care transfer rate in a decade in March 2018, while simultaneously increasing its discharge to community rate – meaning fewer patients were being sent back to acute-care facilities and more patients were returning to their homes.Today the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) honored Rusty Yeager, senior vice president and CIO at Encompass Health, and Cerner with the 2019 CHIME Collaboration Award for their partnership. The award is given annually by CHIME to recognize a collaborative effort between a CIO who is a CHIME member and a CHIME Foundation firm who together offer a benefit to the healthcare IT community. The winners are given an opportunity to share their innovative collaboration and its outcomes with CHIME members for possible application in other healthcare environments.“Rusty and the team at Cerner have shown that we can achieve great outcomes when providers and their industry partners work together,” said CHIME Foundation Board Chair Cletis Earle, senior vice president and CIO at Kaleida Health. “They leveraged their strong relationship to build a predictive tool that will impact patient care for years to come.”“The model was created using the knowledge, skills and capabilities utilized by both organizations to not only provide enhanced care and better outcomes for patients but also to do so in a manner that achieves business success for Encompass Health,” Yeager said.Inspired by the success of this project, Encompass Health and Cerner launched the Post-Acute Care Innovation Center to develop clinical decision support tools to enhance the post-acute care continuum. Their goal is to design innovations to more effectively and efficiently manage patients across multiple care settings.“Working alongside Encompass Health in developing a tool to reduce acute care transfers directly aligns with our company commitment to imagine, design and implement intelligent health networks. We are proud to be recognized by CHIME for innovation and collaboration in this space,” said Adam Laskey, vice president, Long Term and Post-Acute Care, Cerner. “We are eager to expand upon this work through the Post-Acute Innovation Center, helping drive ideas that enhance and improve healthcare outcomes and experiences for all.”The award was presented today during the 2019 CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix.About CHIMEThe College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 3,200 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.About CernerCerner’s health technologies connect people and information systems at more than 27,500 contracted provider facilities worldwide dedicated to creating smarter and better care for individuals and communities. Recognized globally for innovation, Cerner assists clinicians in making care decisions and assists organizations in managing the health of their populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help manage day-to-day revenue functions, as well as a wide range of services to support clinical, financial and operational needs, focused on people. For more information, visit Cerner.com, The Cerner Blog or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or The Cerner Podcast. Nasdaq: CERN. Smarter Care. Better Outcomes. Healthier You.About Encompass HealthAs a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 133 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 82 hospice locations in 37 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter and Facebook.ContactCandace StuartDirector of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME734.665.0000Shayla WilkinsonPublic Relations, Cerner816.718.6944Posted 11.5.2019 -
CynergisTek CEO Emeritus Mac McMillan Honored with CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award
Cybersecurity Veteran Recognized for Exemplary Leadership and Commitment to Healthcare IT Industry
Austin, TX, November 5, 2019— CynergisTek, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN: CTEK), a leader in cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance, today announced that founder and CEO Emeritus Mac McMillan has been named the recipient of the 2019 College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Foundation Industry Leader Award. The award recognizes a CHIME Foundation Firm representative who has demonstrated exceptional dedication and made outstanding contributions to the healthcare IT industry, CHIME, and CHIME Foundation. It is the highest honor given to a Foundation Firm member.
A tireless champion for transforming privacy and security in healthcare, McMillan has been deeply involved in CHIME for over two decades, sharing expert insights with thousands of attendees at numerous CHIME CIO Forums and through the CHIME Foundation’s continuing education programs. He also has supported worthy causes within CHIME, such as the initiative to end legislation against the unique patient identifier and the Opioid Task Force by providing a generous personal donation. As a result of his leadership, McMillan was named to the inaugural board for CHIME’s Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), which provides members with ongoing healthcare privacy and security education and guidance. He was also called upon by CHIME to testify before the U.S. House Energy Subcommittee on Health for the hearing, “Examining Cybersecurity Responsibilities at HHS” on May 25, 2016.
“Cybersecurity in the healthcare sector would not be where it is today without Mac,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell. “When Mac founded CynergisTek, many providers were not even thinking about cyberthreats and the damage they could do to patients and their organizations. Mac made it his mission to educate our community. He has been a true friend to CHIME and AEHIS. It is an honor to recognize him for all he has done over the decades.”
In addition to his roles at CynergisTek and CHIME, McMillan has spent his forty-year career dedicating significant time and resources to the broader advancement of cybersecurity training and education in an effort to close the growing workforce gap in the field. McMillan serves as adjunct faculty at several universities including the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, where he helped shape the development of the Leadership in Healthcare Privacy and Security Risk Management program, which aims to educate the next generation of cybersecurity professionals entering healthcare. McMillan has also supported the CyberPatriot Program, which works with K-12 students to inspire them to pursue careers in cybersecurity and other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
“This is an incredible honor and I am humbled to be recognized by CHIME and its members for this award. It has been a privilege to work alongside and learn from so many health IT leaders in this organization during my career,” said McMillan. “The healthcare industry has made great strides to improve cybersecurity in the last twenty years, and it needs to remain diligent in its efforts to protect its mission. I am confident that CHIME’s work and continued collaboration with peers will ensure organizations are well-educated on security risks and prepared for future threats.”
About CynergisTek, Inc.
CynergisTek is a top-ranked cybersecurity firm dedicated to serving the information assurance needs of the healthcare industry. CynergisTek offers specialized services and solutions to help organizations achieve privacy, security, and compliance goals. Since 2004, the company has served as a partner to hundreds of healthcare organizations and is dedicated to supporting and educating the industry by contributing to relevant industry associations. The company has been recognized by KLAS in the 2016 and 2018 Cybersecurity reports as a top performing firm in healthcare cybersecurity, as well as the 2017 Best in KLAS winner for Cybersecurity Advisory Services.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of CynergisTek that can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “may” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties relating to product/service development, long and uncertain sales cycles, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection, market acceptance, future capital requirements, competition from other providers, the ability of our vendors to continue supplying the company with equipment, parts, supplies and services at comparable terms and prices and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at http://www.sec.gov. CynergisTek is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Investor Relations Contact:
CynergisTek, Inc.
Bryan Flynn
(512) 402-8550 x8
Media Contact:
Aria Marketing
Danielle Johns
(617) 332-9999 x241
Posted 11.5.2019 -
Healthcare Cybersecurity Pioneer Mac McMillan Wins CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award
PHOENIX, AZ, Nov. 5, 2019 – After a career that spanned more than two decades in defense, Mac McMillan decided to transfer his knowledge and skills as a security leader to the healthcare sector. What he discovered when he co-founded CynergisTek in 2004 was an industry that was woefully unprepared for the cyberthreats that were lurking. Undeterred, he made it his mission to raise awareness and educate CIOs in provider settings through College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) forums. And when CHIME launched an association dedicated to security leaders in 2014, CHIME tapped McMillan to serve on the inaugural board.
About five years later CHIME has tapped McMillan again, this time with the highest honor given to a Foundation firm member. Today CHIME named McMillan winner of the 2019 CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award. The award recognizes a CHIME Foundation firm representative who has demonstrated exceptional dedication and made outstanding contributions to the healthcare industry, CHIME and the CHIME Foundation. The award was presented during the 2019 CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix.
“I am honored and humbled to receive this award,” McMillan said. “When I look back to when I first came into healthcare to where we are today, we are a much different industry with respect to cybersecurity. We are much further along than we were, but we still have a way to go. I think we will get there, though.”
In addition to his educational contributions to CHIME, McMillan served as the keynote speaker at the first Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS) Summit, testified at CHIME’s invitation before a U.S. House Committee about the HHS Data Protection Act, was instrumental in CynergisTek joining the CHIME Foundation and AEHIS Foundation and supported the CHIME Education Foundation and the CHIME Opioid Task Force. He also has been a frequent speaker and presenter at association events, is active in university programs to promote careers in cybersecurity and is a contributing author in the book Information Security in Healthcare: Managing Risk, published by HIMSS.
“Mac McMillan is a healthcare cybersecurity pioneer,” said CHIME Foundation Chair Cletis Earle, senior vice president and CIO at Kaleida Health. “Our hospitals and health systems are more robust and our patients and their privacy are safer because of Mac’s leadership and commitment. He has been an advocate for CIOs and CISOs and a strong supporter of CHIME and AEHIS.”
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,900 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.
Contact
Candace Stuart
Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
734.665.0000
[email protected]Posted 11.5.2019 -
First Health Advisory Solutions Receives CHIME Foundation Partner of the Year Award
PHOENIX, AZ, NOV. 5, 2019 – When the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives’ (CHIME) affiliated security association needed experts to help develop a new credential, key members on the leadership team at First Health Advisory Solutions stepped up to the plate. And when CHIME members advocated for security-related policies, First was there offering support and resources. Whether putting on focus groups and webinars or participating on committees and at charitable events, First has been actively engaged with CHIME and the CHIME Foundation.
These contributions and more earned First the 2019 CHIME Foundation Partner Award. The award, which recognizes a CHIME Foundation firm that has made outstanding contributions and demonstrated exceptional dedication and support to the healthcare IT industry, was announced today at the CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix.
“First has enriched our industry in many ways,” said CHIME Foundation Board Chair Cletis Earle, senior vice president and CIO at Kaleida Health. “Their leadership team has volunteered time and resources to educate CHIME members about security and privacy issues, helped launch two important credentialing programs and has been involved on Capitol Hill. We are honored to have them in the CHIME Foundation.”
First’s executive team played a key role in the development and rollout of the Certified Healthcare Information Security Leader (CHISL) credential in 2019 and the CHIME Foundation Certified Healthcare Executive (CFCHE) credential in 2017. First CEO Carter Groome is a member of the board of the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS, which was launched by CHIME in 2014) and chair of the AEHIS Education and Professional Development Committee. In addition to contributions to CHIME and AEHIS, First offers industry initiatives in medical device security and cybersecurity risk management that align with CHIME ‘s top policy priority topics.
“These efforts have been enhanced in concert with CHIME advocacy, policy involvement, webinar presentations and consistent focus group participation,” said First CEO Carter Groome. “We are confident that industry impact has been greatly enhanced through the efforts of CHIME and the platform it has provided First to share such innovations.”
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,900 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.
Contact
Candace Stuart
Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
734.665.0000
[email protected]Posted 11.5.2019 -
CIOs Aviv Gladman and Amanda Hammel Share CHIME-AHA Transformational Leadership Award
PHOENIX, AZ, Nov. 4, 2019 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) today named two healthcare IT executives the winners of the 2019 CHIME-AHA Transformational Leadership Award. Aviv Gladman, MD, CIO and CMIO at Mackenzie Health in Ontario, Canada, and Amanda Hammel, senior vice president and CIO at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, Texas, tied for the award, which is given by CHIME in conjunction with the American Hospital Association (AHA).“We are thrilled that not one but two of our CIO members are receiving this honor,” said CHIME Board Chair Shafiq Rab, MD, senior vice president and CIO at Rush University Medical Center. “Aviv and Amanda are both exceptional leaders whose ability to collaborate across their organizations has made life better for clinicians and patients.”Mackenzie Health launched its EHR in July 2017 and under Gladman’s leadership implemented several initiatives designed to improve clinical outcomes. They created an electronic pathway for treating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that reduced the length of stay by more than two days, freeing up beds for other patients in need of care. In addition, streamlining the electronic order set in their stroke program improved the clinical workflow, expedited care and improved outcomes. A third initiative designed to reduce hospital-acquired C. difficile infections reported a drop of 43% one year after the EMR was implemented.“These initiatives have demonstrated an emphasis on improving the patient experience with enhanced health information technology, health services delivery models and evidence-based clinical practices,” said Mackenzie Health President and CEO Altaf Stationwala. “The leadership of our CIO/CMIO Dr. Aviv Gladman and the clinical teams have pushed the envelope on innovating and adopting technologies that will benefit our patients and community and foster the development of future transformational changes.”Gladman and his team will continue to look for ways to use technology to simultaneously improve clinical and business outcomes. “We want to build a measurable environment that is seamlessly integrated into the clinicians’ workflow,” he said. “With baseline data, we can identify gaps and develop processes to deliver better care.”Hammel played a key role in the implementation of Memorial Hermann’s population health strategy. She and her team were responsible for onboarding a massive amount of data, pulling in data from more than 40 disparate sources, leveraging registries within multiple EHRs and validating analytics. They helped develop a Population Health Data Warehouse and tools that give a comprehensive picture of their patients and identify gaps. They also created Everyday Well, a consumer-facing app that facilitates access to care.“Amanda has led the organization to continue its history of achievements and recognition for leveraging healthcare IT to improve health outcomes,” said Memorial Hermann’s former president and CEO, Chuck Stokes. “Memorial Hermann was the first and only health system to achieve back-to-back HIMSS Davies awards in both 2017 and 2018. And just recently, the system was named a Most Wired health system for the 14th year in a row.”“I am honored to receive this award on behalf of all the work we have done at Memorial Hermann,” said Hammel. “While we have laid a solid foundation, we know there is more work to be done. We plan to continue the acceleration of data use to provide actionable insights by enabling more digital tools and ultimately creating exceptional patient journeys.”The CHIME-AHA Transformational Leadership Award is given in honor of a CEO and CIO whose organization developed and deployed transformational IT that improved the delivery of care and streamlined administrative services. The award was presented today during the 2019 CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix.About CHIMEThe College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 3,200 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.ContactCandace StuartDirector of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME734.665.0000Posted 11.5.2019 -
CHIME Names Liz Johnson 2019 CHIME Outstanding Service Award Winner
PHOENIX, AZ, Nov. 4, 2019 – When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a 1,000-page-plus proposed rule in 2019, there was one healthcare IT leader who gleefully rubbed her hands before diving into the murky prose. Her goal: to help her colleagues assess the policy’s impact and provide a clear and insightful response to then submit to the agency. And when the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) announced the formation of an Opioid Task Force, that same leader jumped at the chance to help try to curb the epidemic. As a volunteer on the member-elected Board of Trustees, a faculty member, a mentor, a policy dynamo and much more, Liz Johnson has shown a passion for serving CHIME and her fellow members over the years.Today she was named the 2019 CHIME Outstanding Service Award winner in recognition of all that she has done for CHIME and the health IT community. The award was announced at the 2019 CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix.“Liz is a legend in our industry,” said CHIME Board Chair Shafiq Rab, MD, senior vice president and CIO at Rush University Medical Center. “She approaches everything with integrity, whether it is educating policymakers, teaching health IT executives or helping her peers. Whatever the role, she never loses sight on patients and how we can best serve them.”Johnson recently retired as the chief innovation officer at Tenet Healthcare. Prior to that position, she was the CIO of Acute Care Hospitals and Clinical Informatics at Tenet. She currently serves as the chair of the CHIME Education Foundation, vice chair of the Policy Steering Committee and a CHIME faculty member. Her past contributions include CHIME Foundation Board chair (2018) Policy Steering Committee chair (2018); CHIME Board chair (2017), and a founding member of the CHIME Opioid Task Force. She is a CHIME Fellow and a Lifetime Member.In 2014, she received CHIME’s Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership. Her other honors include the HIMSS 2018 Distinguished Fellows Service Award, the 2016 University of Texas at Arlington Distinguished Alumni Award, and inclusion in numerous publications listing the most influential leaders in healthcare IT.“The members of CHIME are like family to me,” Johnson said. “They have stood beside me throughout my career, offering guidance and advice whenever I needed it. It is a privilege to be able to provide the same to others. To be recognized by my peers for doing something I love is beyond wonderful. Thank you!”About CHIMEThe College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,900 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.ContactCandace StuartDirector of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME734.665.0000Posted 11.4.2019 -
Navicent Health’s Omer Awan Wins Innovator of the Year Award
ANN ARBOR, MI, Nov. 4, 2019 – Healthcare is notoriously siloed, which poses a costly barrier to coordinated care. Omer Awan, senior vice president and chief information and digital officer at Navicent Health, and his team successfully used health IT to tear down barriers across the system, improving quality and the patient experience while saving Navicent Health millions of dollars. For that, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) named Awan the 2019 CHIME Innovator of the Year. The award was presented today at the CHIME Fall CIO Forum in Phoenix.
“Omer dreams big and then finds ways to make his dreams a reality,” said CHIME Board Chair Shafiq Rab, MD, senior vice president and CIO at Rush University Medical Center. “He and his team developed a systemwide platform that they have used to design customized solutions, always keeping the customer in mind. They’ve shown there are no limitations for innovators who use their imagination.”
Awan partnered with a software development company to develop OrCarestra, an innovation platform that the Navicent Health team could use to integrate applications that coordinate existing systems and streamline the delivery of care. Among their achievements:
- A scheduling platform that allows community physician practices to quickly schedule procedures at a hospital, replacing faxes and phone calls;
- An electronic patient check-in process using airline boarding as a model that makes canceling and rescheduling easy, removes the burden of filling out paper forms and cuts down the wait time;
- An intuitive patient management tool that displays patient case activity on a single page. It includes assessment tools, care plan recommendations, identifies gaps and offers patient education resources; and
- A physician directory that allows physicians to customize their biographies, photos and search terms, making it faster and easier for patients to find providers who match their needs.
“Innovation is never about one person; it is a team sport and I am fortunate to have such fantastic teammates,” Awan said. “Thanks to their great work, we are well positioned to meet the strategic objectives of the enterprise.”
The Innovator of the Year Award is given annually to a member of CHIME whose creative application of technology has demonstrated value to their healthcare organization with an innovative solution that can be shared widely with the CHIME membership.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs), chief innovation officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,900 members in 56 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and care in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.
Contact
Candace Stuart
Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
734.665.0000Posted 11.4.2019 -
CynergisTek, Inc. Acquires Backbone Consultants to Bolster its Market Position as a Leader in Cybersecurity, Compliance, and Data Privacy
Acquisition Adds Security, IT Audit, and Data Privacy Capabilities to its Growing Managed Professional Service Offerings
Austin, TX — November 1, 2019 – CynergisTek, Inc., (NYSE AMERICAN: CTEK), a leader in cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance, today announced that it has acquired Backbone Enterprises, Inc. DBA Backbone Consultants, an industry leader in IT risk advisory services. The acquisition expands CynergisTek’s cybersecurity, privacy, and IT risk advisory services and is consistent with CynergisTek’s strategic plan to grow managed services through targeted, accretive acquisitions.
“Backbone Consultants’ suite of services will immediately complement our entire portfolio as well as provide additional IT risk audit services and GDPR readiness, and prepare us for the opportunity with the California Consumer Privacy Act,” said Caleb Barlow, CEO and President of CynergisTek. “We will look to leverage CynergisTek’s existing client base to cross-sell our services, leverage our back office to bring more efficiency and support to the Backbone team, and look to convert Backbone’s annual audits into a managed service. We’re thrilled that Backbone is part of CynergisTek and are excited to support its continued growth, customers, and employees.”
“Our highly skilled security, IT audit, and data privacy professionals will be a perfect fit within CynergisTek where our customers and employees will see an immediate benefit from CynergisTek’s national presence,” said Walter Zuniga, Managing Partner at Backbone Consultants. “We look forward to continuing our success in the cybersecurity, IT audit, and privacy compliance market as we utilize the strengths of CynergisTek.”
With a history of strong recurring revenue growth, Backbone Consultants generated approximately $3.6 million in revenues over the last 12 months of operations and CynergisTek believes the acquisition will be immediately accretive to its earnings. Backbone Consultants’ leadership team is comprised of three former Big Four consulting leaders and 14 security, privacy, and IT audit experts. In addition, Backbone brings multi-year contracts with a diverse and growing customer base in both healthcare and non-healthcare, including two Fortune 1,000 EHR vendors and one of the largest medical device manufacturers in the market.
With the acquisition of Backbone Consultants, CynergisTek is directly at the intersection of patient privacy, information security, and the opioid crisis. Providers are required to have recurring third-party audits to offer electronic prescriptions for controlled substances (EPCS). Backbone’s EPCS audit service validates that the systems and processes used for electronic prescriptions meet required security requirements set by the DEA. In addition, CynergisTek’s privacy monitoring practice allows for efficient identification of drug diversion or insider threats by constantly monitoring patient and prescription records to identify unusual patterns of behavior.
Initial consideration of approximately $7.0 million consists of $5.5 million in cash and $1.5 million in CynergisTek common stock. Additional earn-out consideration of up to $4 million over three years could be triggered if Backbone Consultants meets specified financial criteria.
More information about the transaction will be available in a Current Report on Form 8-K, which will be promptly filed with the SEC, as well as on CynergisTek’s 100 Day CEO Strategy Call and Webcast, to be held on November 5, 2019, at 1:00 pm Eastern Time.
Strategy Call
Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm Eastern Time / 10:00 am Pacific TimeToll Free: 1-888-220-8451
Toll/International: 1-323-794-2588
Conference ID: 8425531
Webcast: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=136932A replay of the call will be available from 4:00 pm ET on November 5, 2019, to 11:59 pm ET on November 12, 2019. To access the replay, please dial 1-844-512-2921 from the U.S. and 1-412-317-6671 from outside the U.S. The PIN is 8425531.
About Backbone Enterprises, Inc.
Backbone Consultants has progressively built its reputation on delivering premium quality Information Technology (IT) Risk Advisory Services while supplying best-in-class customer service to our business partners. Originally established by Walter Zuniga in 2008, the company has developed a strong expertise in the areas of cybersecurity, IT audit, and data privacy. Backbone has been successful in building a strong client base with multiple Fortune 1,000 companies.
About CynergisTek, Inc.
CynergisTek is a top-ranked cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance management consulting firm dedicated to serving the healthcare industry. CynergisTek offers specialized services and solutions to help organizations achieve privacy, security, and compliance goals. Since 2004, the company has served as a partner to hundreds of healthcare organizations and is dedicated to supporting and educating the industry by contributing to relevant industry associations. The company has been named in numerous research reports as one of the top firms that provider organizations turn to for privacy and security and won the 2017 Best in KLAS award for Cybersecurity Advisory Services.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of CynergisTek that can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “may” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties relating to product/service development, long and uncertain sales cycles, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection, market acceptance, future capital requirements, competition from other providers, the ability of our vendors to continue supplying the company with equipment, parts, supplies and services at comparable terms and prices and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at http://www.sec.gov. CynergisTek is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Investor Relations Contact:
CynergisTek, Inc.
Bryan Flynn
(949) 382-1419
Media Contact:
Aria Marketing
Danielle Johns
(617) 332-9999 x241
Posted 11.1.2019