Some health system IT executives have been taking on multiple roles, such as CIOs taking on the tasks of chief digital officer. The moves have been cited as enabling an overarching technology vision for the organization.
For instance, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health combined its chief analytics officer position with the vice president of data services position.
Nick Iannoni, vice president of data and analytics services for Intermountain, will also take on the duties of the chief analytics officer as its current chief analytics officer is set to move to Cleveland Clinic.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Medicine Children's Health is another health system taking this approach.
On July 12, Tanya Townsend was named chief information and digital officer of the organization. Here she will oversee both digital transformation and technology-driven initiatives.
In a report, executive search firm Egon Zehnder said combining IT roles tends to be the most attractive for leading tech talent and allows disputes between IT and digital to be handled by one person.
But it doesn't come without challenges.
According to Egon Zehnder, finding executives who combine the right experience with the needed skill sets and leadership abilities is one challenge.
Another is that without splitting roles, the person is focused on multiple specialties instead of honing in on just one.