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Rhapsody Health Solutions Team

Chou: The modern healthcare CIO role includes many new responsibilities

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Children’s Mercy Hospital CIO David Chou was recently featured in an IT Leadership column Redefining the ‘I’ in CIO in Information Week.

The article by Steve Kovsky explores how Chou believes the traditional roles of CIO have changed and include many responsibilities outside of traditional IT.

According to the article:

Chou outlined a variety of ways to define the CIO moniker — all of them hinging upon what the “I” in the acronym stands for. The most common usage is chief information officer, of course, which is a reference to the data and related infrastructure that CIOs typically oversee. However, chief intelligence officer might apply if that individual works for an organization devoted to managing its data as an actionable resource for the enterprise. More externally focused CIOs might see themselves as more of a chief integration officer, Chou suggests, and for a business-savvy individual in the post, the title chief innovation officer might be apropos.

Because so many hospital initiatives depend on technology, Chou said that CIOs have to juggle office politics much more in 2018. He offered the following principles for CIOs to navigate the political waters, according to the article:

  • Resolve the immediate discussion or issue in a constructive fashion
  • Winning is not enough — it’s more important to “win others over”
  • “Optimize the long-term relationship between the players”

How do you think the CIO title is changing in healthcare?

David Chou is also featured in a HIMSS Analytics report, which you can download from our website, titled Integration Engines: Conquering Interoperability Challenges.

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