The hospital chief information officer is at the intersection of technology and clinical care more than ever before, says Marc Chasin, M.D., CIO of St. Luke's Health System in Boise, Idaho.
As a physician, that's where his passion is, he tells FierceHealthIT in an exclusive interview.
"I actually feel now that my role is an active participant in the transformation of care and the way that healthcare is going from volume to value," adds Chasin, who also serves as the Boise, Idaho-based health system's chief medical informatics officer.
"The CIO is now an active member at the table."
A CIO, as the IT leader, needs collaborate in and contribute to the development of strategies throughout the organization, he says.
Chasin also spoke to us about how St. Luke's is addressing cybersecurity, what the most challenging part of his work is and what trends he sees happening in 2016.
FierceHealthIT: What projects are you currently working on for St. Luke's Health System and what's your role in them?
Marc Chasin: My role is dual--I hold the chief medical informatics officer and CIO roles, so I'm focused on many different projects. Currently, I'm continuing to work on optimizing the EHR, and we're still deploying our inpatient EHR across the entire system. Also, I'm doing a lot of application rationalization and taking out the legacy applications that we're no longer using.
Enterprise information management is a big focus as well. I believe many health systems don't have a good handle on data governance, and as we move from a volume-based system to value-based we're going to need to use our data for strategic information so we can address at-risk patients as we move toward more risk-based contracts.
FHIT: What are you doing to improve security and privacy?
MC: Cybersecurity and privacy of patient data are of upmost importance. At St. Luke's, we proceed as if we've already been breached; that's how our security posture is. We try to develop the right policies and procedures to minimize any breach that we may have.
We've done organization-wide phishing tests and education, and we do quarterly phishing surveys to see how many of our employees have learned how to ID a potential attempt. If they fall prey to it, we do some immediate education right after the suspected breach.
FHIT: What's the most challenging part of your work?
MC: The unprecedented amount of change in the healthcare environment and what the CIO must do with continually limited resources. There are regulatory changes, EHR deployments and optimization, cybersecurity and changes in how we work. The biggest challenge is the pace of change that we have to address. To do that, I have to build credibility and partnerships with my business owners--with my CEO, with my COO, and make sure that we truly understand why we're doing what we're doing.
FHIT: What do you see as the biggest issue in healthcare technology heading into 2016?
MC: There are four trends for next year: Interoperability is still going to be big, cybersecurity is going to be big, data governance will have increased focus, and collaboration will grow. For collaboration, I mean looking at social media, looking at how we engage our patients farther and farther away from our health system, and connecting with them where they work and live.
FHIT: How will changes in healthcare technology alter the role of the CIO?
MC: IT and the CIO are no longer back-end functions. It's no longer a ticket-taker mentality; it is now front and center. The CIO in the past has not been very strategic. To improve the health of patients in our region and engage patients in farther away areas, an expert in how technology can enable that needs to be at the table. And that's where I see the greatest change in the CIO role.
FHIT: What advice would you give to other CIOs in the industry?
MC: Seize the day. This is an opportunity for us to lead and to aid in the transformation of healthcare.
Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.