Becker's Hospital Review

33 CIO / HEALTH IT Kaiser, Cleveland Clinic, Providence: 20 chief digital officer moves in '22 By Giles Bruce A s hospitals and health systems continued their shi to digital this year, several named their inaugural chief digital officers while other digital chiefs le for new jobs in other industries. Here are 20 chief digital officer appointments and exits in 2022: 1. Sayre, Pa.-based Guthrie Clinic named Terri Couts, RN, the health system's first chief digital officer in December. 2. Benjamin Maisano, the former chief digital and innovation officer of Morristown, N.J.-based Atlantic Health System, joined digital health startup Tendo in December. 3. In October, Jason Joseph was named chief digital and information officer of Corewell Health, the 22-hospital organization formed by the February merger of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spectrum Health and Southfield, Mich.-based Beaumont Health. 4. Nick Patel, MD, le his post as chief digital officer of Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health in October. 5. Prat Vemana, Kaiser Permanente's senior vice president and chief digital officer, le the Oakland, Calif.-based health system for a role at Target in October. 6. University of Chicago Medicine named Maia Hightower, MD, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer in August. 7. Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare appointed Craig Richardville chief digital and information officer and senior vice president in July. 8. Suja Chandrasekaran, the former senior vice president and chief digital and information officer of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, le the organization in June. 9. Kevin Conway was named senior vice president and chief information and digital officer of Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health in June. 10. Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health appointed Jennifer Stemmler chief digital officer in April. 11. Renton, Wash.-based Providence named Sara Vaezy executive vice president and chief digital officer in April. 12. Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health in March named Jared Antczak its first chief digital officer. 13. Rockville Centre, N.Y.-based Catholic Health named Michael Mainiero senior vice president and chief digital and information officer in March. 14. Aaron Martin, former chief digital officer of Providence, le the health system in March to join Amazon as a vice president of health. 15. Cincinnati-based UC Health appointed Umberto Tachinardi, MD, its first chief health digital officer in March. 16. Rohit Chandra, PhD, began his new role as chief digital officer for Cleveland Clinic in February. 17. Joel Vengco was appointed chief information and digital officer for Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare, in February. 18. Denise Basow, MD, joined New Orleans-based Ochsner Health as senior vice president and chief digital officer in January and became an executive vice president in November. 19. Rémy Evard joined New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as chief digital officer and head of technology in January. 20. April Giard, DNP, became senior vice president and chief digital officer of Brewer, Maine-based Northern Light Health in January. n Number of MyChart messages drops after hospitals start billing for them, study finds By Giles Bruce M yChart messages declined at San Francisco- based UCSF Health after the health system started billing for them, though clinicians rarely charge patients for them, a JAMA study found. UCSF Health is among the health systems that have employed a policy change that lets providers be reimbursed for the types of patient portal messages that exploded in use during the pandemic. At UCSF, patients are notified of the potential charges before they send a message. After allowing clinicians to decide when to bill for messages, in November 2021, patient message threads and overall messages dropped slightly at UCSF Health, which the researchers said "may be attributable to awareness of the possibility of being billed." But clinicians only charged for about 2 percent of message threads. The Jan. 6 study's authors said future research should look at overall costs under varying payment models and the effects of messaging billing on health outcomes, equity, and patient and clinician experience. n

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