Health systems are elevating digital chiefs to lead their digital transformation and data analytics strategies.
Many chief digital officers oversee digital technology integration and improving the digital patient experience. They are also working with their IT and clinical colleagues to integrate digital tools for more efficient EHRs and workflows across organizations. While health systems are cutting back in many areas due to financial struggles, they are still spending resources on digital transformation, according to a survey from Guidehouse and HFMA.
Below are 35 hospital and health system chief digital officers to know. This list is based on nominations and editorial team research. You can find nominations for future Becker's lists here. Contact Anna Falvey at afalvey@beckershealthcare.com with any questions or comments on this list.
Tony Ambrozie. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Baptist Health South Florida (Coral Gables). Mr. Ambrozie oversees all the use of technology and data across South Florida's largest health system, which includes 12 hospitals, more than 27,000 employees, 4,000 physicians, and 100 outpatient centers, urgent care facilities and physician practices across four counties. He was appointed to this inaugural role in October 2020 after serving as the senior vice president of technology and digital for the Walt Disney Co.
Michael Anderes. Chief Innovation and Digital Officer at Froedtert Health (Milwaukee). In addition to his current role, Mr. Anderes is the president of Inception Health, a company of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network that works to power adoption of digital health technology and forge partnerships with innovative companies at the health network. He also has experience leading strategy and performance for health systems, previously doing so for Froedtert Health's orthopedic, neuroscience and spine service lines and serving as the director of strategy at Poudre Valley Health System in Fort Collins, Colo.
Ashish Atreja, MD. CIO and Chief Digital Officer of UC Davis Health (Sacramento, Calif.). Dr. Atreja is responsible for UC Davis Health's digital relationship expansion to connect with other hospitals and patients. He aims to bridge the gap between IT, academic research and innovation as the health system becomes a global hub for digital health. Dr. Atreja has previous experience as chief innovation officer for the department of medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and he also spent time as associate program director for informatics fellowship at Cleveland Clinic.
Omer Awan. Chief Data and Digital Officer at Atrium Health (Charlotte, N.C.). Mr. Awan oversees data and digital innovation for a health system consisting of 70,000 employees, 40 hospitals and more than 1,400 care locations. He joined the health system in 2016 after serving as vice president and senior regional CIO for Northern Light Health in Brewer, Maine.
Kathy Azeez-Narain. Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Hoag (Newport Beach, Calif.). Ms. Azeez-Narain oversees digital innovation for a health system made up of two hospitals, 14 urgent care centers, 1,700 physicians and 7,000 employees. She is seen as a digital product leader with more than a decade of experience in product development and marketing in the financial services industry, previously serving in leadership roles for American Express.
Sameer Badlani, MD. Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Fairview (Minneapolis). Dr. Badlani leads digital innovation for a system of 34,000 employees and 10 care facilities. He was previously the chief health information officer and system vice president of enterprise data management and analytics at Sutter Health in Sacramento, Calif. He was also chief health information officer at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City and chief medical information officer at UChicago Medicine.
R. Hal Baker, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Digital and Information Officer of WellSpan Health (York, Pa.). Dr. Baker oversees information technology, health information management, medical informatics, cybersecurity, digital and biomedical devices for WellSpan Health, with a special focus on the creation of the system’s Analytics Center of Excellence and Innovation Center. His leadership has contributed greatly to the health system’s expansion of its telehealth capabilities. He also helped create a Central Alert Team to monitor real-time data, which allows for early detection and immediate treatment of sepsis. Dr. Baker also practices primary care as part of WellSpan Medical Group at Apple Hill Internal Medicine.
Ashis Barad, MD. Chief Digital and Information Officer at Allegheny Health Network (Pittsburgh). Dr. Barad joined Highmark Health in 2022 after serving as clinical lead for Baylor Scott & White’s digital health office. In his current role, he leads the health system’s efforts to deploy technologies that extend reach, access and effectiveness of clinical care delivery. His main goal is to enhance the patient and client experience relative to electronic health records, AI-powered data analytics, wearable devices, and other virtual tools and platforms.
Denise Basow, MD. Chief Digital Officer at Ochsner Health (New Orleans). Dr. Basow stepped into her current role with Ochsner Health in January. Before that, she served for more than six years as president and CEO of information services and publishing firm Wolters Kluwer. She served for more than 19 years in various leadership roles with clinical IT services and consulting company UpToDate and was a primary care internist at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., from 1994-96.
Hank Capps, MD. Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Wellstar Health System (Marietta, Ga.). In his role at Wellstar Health System, Dr. Capps hones in on core technology, retiring technical debt, building high-reliability execution, data, and the creation of a modern data enterprise. In 2021, Dr. Capps helmed the launch of Wellstar's Catalyst center, a first-of-its-kind innovation company and venture firm, created to disrupt healthcare with cross-industry solutions. Dr. Capps also transformed the system's flagship website, growing monthly sessions 96 percent in just one year and reducing bounce rates by over 50 percent. Other accomplishments include helping to debut a consumer-facing mobile app, launching the Wellstar Data and Insights Institute, and unveiling a new time-saving platform that allows physicians to spend more time with patients. His work has earned him the 2022 Georgia CIO of the year Healthcare ORBIE award.
Albert Chan, MD. Enterprise Vice President and Chief of Digital Health Officer at Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.). Dr. Chan leads Sutter Health's efforts in web and mobile healthcare services transformation. He also heads the Sutter Health My Health Online initiative and continues to practice family medicine at the Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Foundation. He has served in his current role at Sutter Health since August 2015.
Rohit Chandra, PhD. Chief Digital Officer at Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland). Dr. Chandra stepped into the chief digital officer role in 2022. He leads the information technology division and drives digital innovation across Cleveland Clinic's health system. Dr. Chandra has more than 25 years of experience in digital technology and engineering. He previously served as the vice president of engineering at technology startup Sunshine Products.
Saad Chaudhry. Chief Digital and Information Officer of Luminis Health (Annapolis, Md.). Since his promotion to chief digital and information officer in early 2023, Mr. Chaudhry’s responsibilities include overseeing marketing, communications, public relations, IT, biomedical engineering, telecom and business analytics for Luminis Health. Prior to his promotion, he acted as CIO of the health system, which spans three hospitals and approximately 100 ambulatory care sites.
Michelle Conger. Chief Strategy Officer at OSF HealthCare and Chief Executive Officer of OSF OnCall Digital Health (Peoria, Ill.). Ms. Conger is a senior executive at OSF HealthCare, an integrated health system with 15 hospitals across Illinois and Michigan. As chief strategist for OSF, Michelle has led the development of transformational health care work out of the OSF Innovation Center, which led to a comprehensive OSF OnCall Digital Health entity. Among various digital advances, she has established a remote patient monitoring for Medicaid patients, a respiratory syncytial virus pediatric digital care program and a Hospital at Home program.
Rémy Evard. Chief Digital Officer and Head of Technology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York City). Mr. Evard, who brings more than 30 years experience in technology leadership, oversees the design and execution of the center's digital strategy. He is also in charge of the digital informatics and technology solutions department, which includes more than 1,000 employees.
Jeffrey Ferranti, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Duke University Health System (Durham, N.C.). Prior to serving as chief digital officer, Mr. Ferranti was CIO, vice president for medical informatics and leader of Duke Health Technology Solutions. He also helped the health system roll out the enterprise deployment of Epic's EHR system and provided strategic oversight of the health system's technology.
Randall Gaboriault. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer of ChristianaCare (Wilmington, Del.). Mr. Gaboriault is responsible for leading digital technology and innovation initiatives. He also serves as chair of the Delaware Health Information Network, the first statewide health information exchange in the nation.
Deborah Gash. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Saint Luke's Health System (Kansas City, Mo.). Ms. Gash has over 24 years of experience at Saint Luke's. She joined the system as a project manager in 1998 and served in a variety of leadership roles before being appointed to her current ones in 2018.
Mark Hulse. Chief Digital Officer of City of Hope (Duarte, Calif.). In his role as chief digital officer, Mr. Hulse solves key business challenges and leads a broad range of digital initiatives to support clinical, research, operations and administrative objectives. Prior to joining City of Hope, Mr. Hulse served as CEO of the THEO Executive Group. He also served as chief administrative officer and chief information officer at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla.
David Jaffray, PhD. Senior Vice President, Chief Technology and Digital Officer of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston). Dr. Jaffray is the MD Anderson Cancer Center's inaugural chief technology and digital officer, bringing more than two decades of scientific expertise to the role. After being recruited to the center in 2019, he also leads efforts to advance data integration, governance and security across MD Anderson’s Houston campuses and its national network.
Rita Khan. Chief Digital Officer of Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.). Ms. Khan joined Mayo Clinic in January 2020 to oversee the health system's digital strategy and establish the Center for Digital Health. She is focused on the digital patient experience and business plan for the health system. Prior to joining Mayo, Ms. Khan was the senior vice president of consumer digital at UnitedHealthcare, directing the enterprise digital strategy.
Tarun Kapoor, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Virtua Health (Marlton, N.J.). Dr. Kapoor is leading the enterprise expansion of digital technologies to support Virtua Health's operational imperatives. His talents have led to the deployment of the organization's digital-first portfolio of clinical services with net promoter scores over 75 percent and over 20 percent contribution margins. He also led the initial digital health response during the pandemic, ramping up outpatient telemedicine presence from nonexistent to over 100,000 visits within 20 weeks. In addition, he has overseen the organization’s strategic partnership with Medtronic.
Christopher Longhurst, MD. Chief Medical Officer, Chief Digital Officer of UC San Diego Health. In his dual role as chief medical and digital officer at UC San Diego Health, Dr. Longhurst provides leadership to the system's medical staff while ensuring measures are in place to provide the highest standard of care. Prior to his current role, Dr. Longhurst served as the system's chief information officer and associate chief medical officer for quality and safety.
Novlet Mattis. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Orlando (Fla.) Health. As senior vice president and chief digital and information officer at Orlando Health, Ms. Mattis provides executive leadership for information technology, clinical engineering, digital innovation and supply chain. She oversees a budget of over $300 million in information technology and clinical engineering, as well as a $1.4 billion enterprise-wide supply chain budget. She also guides a team of nearly 1,000 staff members. Ms. Novalet was responsible for leading the implementation of Epic's EHR platform at Orlando Health, one of the system’s most transformative initiatives in its 105-year history.
Nader Mherabi. Executive Vice President, Vice Dean and Chief Digital and Information Officer of NYU Langone Health (New York City). Mr. Mherabi is responsible for all of NYU Langone Health's information technology activities and development. He also leads the organization's digital transformation initiative. In the 20 years since joining the health system, he has worked tirelessly to create a singular IT department that homes a centralized electronic medical record for each patient. Prior to his tenure at NYU Langone Health, he served as vice president of Credit Suisse First Boston.
Aaron Miri. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer of Baptist Health (Jacksonville, Fla.). In his role at Baptist Health, Mr. Miri is responsible for the future of digital strategy, innovation, cybersecurity, and technology integration across the enterprise. His overarching goal is to humanize technology for the rapid and secure delivery of clinical care. Additionally, Mr. Miri is the co-chair of HHS' federal Health IT Advisory Committee. He is also an adviser to the National Academy of Medicine. Before joining Baptist Health, he was the CIO for The University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School and UT Health Austin.
Raj Mohan, Chief Digital Officer of Ascension (St. Louis, Mo.). Mr. Mohan leads Ascension’s Studio in its work to improve consumers’ experience with the health ministry of 139,000 associates and more than 2,600 sites of care. His team of product managers, experience researchers, user experience designers and software engineers are creating transformative technology-, data- and UX-enabled services and strategic solutions. He has extensive strategy, brand, loyalty and digital experience in the hospitality, airline and media industries, all focused on customer experience and growth.
Kristin Myers. Executive Vice President, Chief Digital and Information Officer, and Dean for Digital and Information Technology of Mount Sinai Health System (New York City). Ms. Myers has a scope of work that spans digital transformation, enterprise data and analytics, clinical data science, clinical innovation, clinical and nursing informatics, intelligent automation, cybersecurity, service delivery, enterprise applications, infrastructure, cloud services, interoperability and IT project management. She also has direct oversight over academic IT, research informatics and scientific computing. Her recent accomplishments include executing on all pandemic IT efforts, acting as a corporate leader for the anti-racism roadmap program, and the digitization of end-to-end patient and employee experience.
Nassar Nizami. Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health (Philadelphia). Mr. Nizami oversees Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health's information technology strategic plan, digital transformation initiative, cybersecurity and enterprise data analytics strategy. He prioritizes advancing healthcare, research and education using technology. Under his leadership, Jefferson is moving the Epic EHR to the public cloud, which will better position Jefferson to deliver business agility, derive better data insight and mitigate risk.
Kash Patel. Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Digital Engagement Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.). At Hackensack Meridian Health, Mr. Patel sets an overall digital technology strategy that is consistent with the system's overall goals. He leads a team of over 750, with which he will be digitizing the patient, community, team member, provider, researcher and student experience using a suite of services that will improve care. He is also accelerating the use of AI and machine learning, providing IT security leadership, adopting Google platforms to facilitate operations, and many more initiatives. He is also a member of the executive board of the Hackensack Meridian Health board of trustees.
Shafiq Rab, MD. Chief Digital Officer and CIO of Tufts Medicine (Burlington, Mass.). Dr. Rab leads Tuft's digital transformation efforts, overseeing the systemwide digital and IT organization that supports care. He is an expert on interoperability, FHIR, cloud strategy, use of apps, APIs, AI and digital healthcare economy. Prior to joining Tufts in November 2020, he served as senior vice president and CIO at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Nick Reddy. Chief Digital Officer and Senior Vice President of Information Services at Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas). In his role, Mr. Reddy aims to take the information known about each patient and use it to help that person achieve good outcomes. For instance, his team asked 10,000 customers about what convenience meant to them and used that information to make a highly rated app available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play. Mr. Reddy has been with Baylor Scott & White Health for over 10 years.
Craig Richardville. Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer of Intermountain Health (Salt Lake City, Utah). Mr. Richardville is the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Intermountain Health. His responsibilities include management and leadership of the health system’s information technology. This includes strategy, applications, operations, information security, informatics, data and analytics, and leading the system’s digital transformation and information automation. He has over 20 years of experience using data as a driving force for better care solutions. Due to his success in his roles, he earned the National CIO of the Year ORBIE Award in 2021.
Edmondo Robinson, MD. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Fla.). In his role, Dr. Robinson leads the center for digital health, which creates and tests new services, programs, partnerships and technologies that leverage digital innovations. He is also an associate professor at University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa and an adjunct senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Prior to his role at Moffitt, Dr. Robinson was the chief transformation officer and senior vice president of consumerism at ChristianaCare.
Jeff Sturman. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Memorial Healthcare System (Hollywood, Fla.). Mr. Sturman has been with Memorial for more than three years and an integral part of the health system's digital transformation. He was promoted from CIO to chief digital officer in October 2021 as the health system aims to expand its digital innovation and consumerism approaches. He now oversees IT, clinical engineering and biomed and spearheads solutions to fix healthcare access issues in the community.
Jason Szczuka. Chief Digital Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati). Mr. Szczuka came to the 50-hospital system in July 2021. He was previously the chief digital officer at Cigna for two years. Before holding that position, he was vice president of digital transformation at Cigna.
Sara Vaezy. Chief Strategy and Digital Officer of Providence (Renton, Wash.). Ms. Vaezy is responsible for system strategy and digital innovation for the integrated delivery network, which includes 52 hospitals, over 900 clinics and 5 million unique patients. She is the architect of Providence’s digital innovation model, which has resulted in over 150 partnerships and the incubation of valuable technologies for Providence and other health systems. She is also active in the broader healthcare industry, serving as a board director for the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a member of the Frist Cressey Ventures Collective’s inaugural class, a member of Forbes Business Council and more.
Joel Vengco. Senior Vice President of Information Technology Services and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare. In his position at Hartford HealthCare, Mr. Vengco is responsible for leading all technology operations, enterprise applications, and data and digital transformation initiatives across 8 hospitals and more than 400 clinical sites. He is currently leading the charge to move the organization’s data to Google Cloud’s Healthcare Data Engine. He brings over 20 years of related experience to his role, having most recently acted as senior vice president and chief information digital officer at Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health. His primary professional goal is to utilize data and digital to personalize the patient experience.
Laura Wilt. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Sutter Health (Sacramento). Ms. Wilt oversees Sutter's unified digital strategy and is responsible for information services, innovation, data analytics and the digital patient experience. The health system's goal is to achieve a best-in-class, digitally enabled healthcare experience for its 3.3 million members. Ms. Wilt is also focused on improving Sutter's EHR user experience by integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning for more efficient workflows. Ms. Wilt joined Sutter in early 2023 after spending 10 years at New Orleans-based Ochsner Health, where she was senior vice president and CIO. While at Ochsner, she worked with innovation teams and supported cybersecurity efforts.
Angela Yochem. Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation and Digital Officer of Novant Health (Charlotte, N.C.). Ms. Yochem joined Novant in 2018, originally as executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer. She took her current position in 2020. Ms. Yochem also serves as COO of Novant Health Enterprises, Novant's business division. Before coming to Novant, she was executive vice president and CIO of Rent-A-Center.