Inside CHIME: ‘We Are Better IT Executives Because of CHIME’
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4.27.16 by Matthew Weinstock Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME |
With CHIME’s 25th anniversary fast approaching, founding member John Glaser reflects on the growth of the organization and the evolving role of the CIO.
It started with a doodle on a napkin and has grown into a movement that’s helping to transform healthcare.
Nearly a quarter of a century ago, a handful of health IT leaders dreamed up the idea of forming a professional organization where CIOs could network, share ideas and support each other.
“I remember sitting in a HIMSS board meeting with Rich Correll and Rich Rydell discussing the need to help the field advance the CIO profession,” recalls John Glaser, former vice president and CIO at Partners HealthCare. “We talked about creating an organization where CIOs could learn from each other. Rich Rydell said that we should put ‘college’ in the title, similar to the American College of Healthcare Executives. Then Rich Correll wrote out CHIME on a napkin. That was the moment it started.”
This November, CHIME will hold its 25th Fall CIO Forum. And next April, the organization officially turns 25. During the course of the year, we’ll celebrate CHIME’s tremendous growth and the evolution of the CIO to, as the vision statement says, “Exceptional Leaders Transforming Healthcare.” (Do you have a memory you’d like to share? Maybe a photo or a video message? Click here to share your reflections, which we may use at CHIME16 and throughout the year.)
Similar to many things in healthcare, the evolution of the CIO lagged a bit behind other industries. In the early 1990s, CIOs were “largely the back office manager making sure the system was up,” says Glaser, who now serves as senior vice president of population health and global strategy at Cerner. “We could see our peers in other industries like transportation and financial services becoming more strategic partners and how IT could enable strategy.”
However, Glaser says, there were pockets of innovation in healthcare where IT was moving into the clinical realm and improving processes. Yet there was a void for CIOs to learn from each other.
“We wanted to have content and material that was really focused on the CIO and create an environment for networking and professional development. We wanted to bring CIOs together and form relationships,” Glaser adds.
Flash forward to 2016 and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives now boasts more than 1,800 members, hosts a plethora of education and professional development events, and is helping shape IT policy in Washington, D.C. And, importantly, CHIME has helped CIOs forge lifelong professional and personal bonds.
“I give the organization credit for advancing the profession,” Glaser says. “CHIME developed Boot Camp, started offering scholarships for members to attend education programs, and built relationships with partner organizations across healthcare. We are better IT executives because of CHIME.”
But there’s no resting. Healthcare is evolving to a value-based model that extends across the continuum. As a result, CIOs need to continue to grow their knowledge base and expertise.
“We are at a critical place,” Glaser says. “We are moving from sick care to paying for quality. If you grew up in a hospital, you now have to look across delivery system, including care in the home. You have to understand accountable care and bundles and capitation. We are also coming to the end of the era of EHR adoption and shifting to getting the yield from those systems.”
As evidenced by such initiatives as the National Patient ID Challenge and the partnership with OpenNotes, as well as the LEAD Forum, Boot Camp and College LIVE, CHIME is poised to evolve alongside its members and continue to help them transform healthcare.
Again, click here to share your reflections about CHIME’s 25th anniversary.