Boot camp gives CMIO hopefuls a chance to learn from peers

Curriculum focuses on use of IT, interactions with clinicians, says George Reynolds.


The College of Health Information Management Executives will conduct its annual CMIO Boot Camp June 19 to 21 in Ojai, Calif., for clinicians who aspire to become chief medical information officers.

The curriculum places a heavy emphasis on the increasing use of healthcare information technology in medicine, and how a leader can integrate new data practices with leadership skills in engaging clinicians in discussions of how they can use IT.

The boot camp places a heavy emphasis on advance preparation. A significant amount of reading and homework is required, according to George Reynolds, a member of the boot camp faculty and retired CIO and CMIO at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.

Attendees preparing for the camp will receive published material from Health Affairs, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, the New Yorker and other authoritative sources covering the role of health information in the current environment, making change happen, and communication best practices.

This list totals nine articles, all required reading. Then, there are another nine articles that are recommended reading and cover getting buy-in for your ideas, making changes when change is hard, presentation design and delivery, and negotiating without giving in, among other topics.

In addition to Reynolds, faculty members of the camp include Chris Longhurst, MD, CIO at University of California-San Diego Healthcare; Albert Oriol, CIO at Rady Children’s Hospital; Brian Patty, MD, VP and CMIO at Rush University Medical Center; Tim Stettheimer, VP and Regional CIO at Ascension Health Information Services; and Keith Fraidenburg, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer at CHIME.

The boot camp uses several approaches, such as roleplaying between a CMIO and a doctor or other end users to learn how to pitch an idea and how it could get torpedoed, and if so, how to respond, Reynolds says.

Other sessions will cover becoming good at organizational politics, communication skills, the technical side of the job, demonstrating IT’s business value, speaking the language of budgets, creating effective CIO/CMIO/HIT teams, building networks and community, team building and what to do during the first 30, 60 and 90 days.

This is a conference different from others that often tackle a wide variety of issues, Reynolds notes. “Our conference is built around leadership and organization being the interface between clinicians and other leaders.”

Following the CMIO Boot Camp at the same site will be the annual conference of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems. Attendance is not required but recommended. More information is available here, although space is limited.

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