INSIDE CHIME: Education Foundation Boosts Investments in Leadership Development

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jsunquist 9.24.15 by Joanne Sunquist, FCHIME, CHCIO
CHIME Education Foundation Committee chair; senior vice president and CIO HealthEast Care System

In 2015, the CHIME Education Foundation awarded a record number of scholarships for leadership development. The Foundation has been working to raise the visibility and viability of the scholarship program.

During the past couple of years, CHIME has made it a strategic priority to enhance educational opportunities for its members. The goal is to ensure that we are preparing health IT leaders to take on the challenges of a complex healthcare environment.

To do this, CHIME staff, Education Foundation and CHIME Foundation members launched a concerted effort to raise the visibility and awareness of the scholarship program. This included plans to create a sustainable financial model that would allow the program to grow in the coming years. We are seeing the fruits of that labor. In 2015, the Education Foundation awarded 50 scholarships, totaling $174,000, for health IT leaders to take advantage of a host of professional development programs, including attending a Boot Camp or the Fall CIO Forum. Since 2007, the Foundation has issued 158 scholarships. Clearly, the drive over the past couple of years is making an impact.

As the delivery system continues to transform and IT becomes more engrained in every aspect of healthcare, we are seeing a greater need for IT professionals to hone their leadership skills. Growth in the scholarship program recognizes the value in investing in leadership training and professional development. Roughly 70 percent of scholarships have been awarded to CIOs, but directors of informatics, security and infrastructure, to name a few, are also benefiting from this tremendous opportunity. This endeavor wouldn’t be possible without the support of CHIME Foundation members, as wells individual CIOs who have given back to the Education Foundation.

We were excited over the summer to unveil the Rich Umbdenstock-American Hospital Association Most Wired Scholarship. This was done in recognition of Rich’s tremendous service to the field as the president and CEO of the AHA for the past nine years. It will be awarded annually for a CIO to attend a Boot Camp. It’s a nice addition to the array of other named awards — the John Glaser Scholarship, Richard A. Correll Scholarship and Stoltenberg 25-year Future Fund — that recognize leaders in the industry.

I suspect that this year’s bumper crop of scholarships is just the beginning of even bigger things to come for the Education Foundation.

Click here to learn more about the CHIME Education Foundation.

More Inside CHIME Volume 1, No. 1: