Inside CHIME: How CHIME’s International Outreach Benefits All of Us

Inside CHIME - header

7.20.17
By Russell Branzell, President & CEO, CHIME

Between March and the end of June this year, I traveled more than 44,000 miles on international flights, crisscrossing more time zones than John Glenn during his astronaut days, or so it seemed. I talked with CIOs and IT leaders in India, Australia, the U.K. and Ireland about leadership, the changing role of the CIO, cybersecurity and more. Some members may be wondering, “Why all the globetrotting by a president and CEO whose members primarily hail from the United States?” Or more pointedly, “What’s in it for me, a CIO or the equivalent based in Los Angeles, Dallas or rural Maine?”

Lots.

The United States produced the assembly line, and Japan gave us Six Sigma and lean manufacturing. France gets credit for Louis Pasteur, and England for Francis Crick. No one country has a monopoly on great ideas.

In the rapidly changing and increasingly threatened environment of healthcare IT, the more we share, the more we can learn from each other. For instance, Australia’s efforts to deliver healthcare across an expanse of 2.9 million square miles can inform health systems in vast and sparsely populated states like Alaska and Montana. At the HIMSS/CHIME Australia eHealth Summit in late May, Zoran Bolevich, CIO and CEO of eHealth NSW (New South Wales) outlined steps underway to connect to patients digitally.

Although health systems may vary culturally and function under different regulatory bodies, we also have commonalities beyond the technologies we use. We all face leadership and management challenges, and this is one way that CHIME, through its members’ experience and wisdom, can have a global impact. Singapore is a case in point. Although highly skilled and technically sophisticated, the CIO community in Singapore sometimes struggles with establishing a leadership role within the healthcare system. Some feel isolated. The opportunity to learn from seasoned leaders at CHIME is helping them navigate within their hospital management’s upper echelons and develop a support network.

I am not the sole voice from CHIME at these international events. Tim Stettheimer, vice president and regional CIO at St. Louis-based Ascension Health Information Services, joined me in Australia and participated in five presentations, including a session on the International CHIME Certified Healthcare CIO program. Albert Oriol, vice president and CIO at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, spoke at a leadership academy in Spain last year. They are among the growing roster of CHIME members to contribute to international events.

If we share at a global level, we will be able to drive healthcare change for the betterment of patients worldwide, one great idea at a time. It will be our equivalent to orbiting the Earth, as John Glenn first did in 1962, which set the stage for more ambitious manned space travel.

Here is what the astronaut-turned-senator said in a speech in 2008 at NASA’s 50th anniversary:

“Where we go in exploration is certainly important. But what we learn and benefit from each of those steps along the way will benefit every man, woman and child in our nation and eventually around the world. The next 50 (years)? Who knows, but I am convinced it’s going to be great.”

I, too, am convinced the next 50 years in healthcare IT will be great, if we share what we learn and apply those benefits beyond the borders of our hospital walls and our national and continental boundaries. We’ve already started by growing our international CHIME membership, offering the international version of the CHIME Healthcare CIO program and reaching out globally through HIMSS/CHIME summits. It’s a great big world out there, and all of us in CHIME can help in lending—and borrowing—ideas on this global stage. If you want to participate, contact CHIME at [email protected].

Thanks for your support and the important work that you do to advance patient care.

More Inside CHIME Volume 2, No. 15: