Posing for a photo at HIMSS16 is the group of women who started the ball rolling on recognizing the contributions women in health IT are making to the industry. At HIMSS17, seven women will be recognized for their exceptional work in the field at the inaugural HIMSS Women in Health IT Awards reception and dinner.
Marion J.Ball is Senior Advisor, Research, Industry Specialist, Healthcare Informatics at IBM Research. She is Professor Emerita, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Affiliate Professor, Division of Health Sciences Informatics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
She is regarded as an international innovator, educator, author, and leader with more than 35 years of experience in the healthcare IT community. Ball is a member of the Institute of Medicine – now named the National Academy of Medicine. She is co-chair of the TIGER HIMSS Committee, and was elected to membership of the IBM Industry Academy. She "has demonstrated ongoing commitment to harness the power of IT to positively transform health and healthcare above and beyond," wrote the person who nominated her for the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award.
"She has and is mentoring many young women as well as men in her long career as a national and international leader in healthcare IT."
Rachelle Blake has worked to advance the importance of health information technology to organizational leaders globally. She leads her firms, the Omni Family of Companies, in the performance of health information and technology consulting for several Transatlantic cooperative initiatives.
With her clinical applications work, operational healthcare leadership background and strategic planning and administration experience, Blake works to advance the best use of IT for healthcare stakeholders that her organization serves. "Blake is devoted to fostering service excellence through innovation," noted the person who nominated her for the award.
Karen DeSalvo, MD, is the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As a physician she focused her career on improving access to affordable, high quality care for all people, especially vulnerable populations, and promoting overall health.
She served as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology from January 2014 through August 2016. During her tenure, DeSalvo set high-level policy as well as the strategic direction of the Office of the National Coordinator, including efforts related to interoperability.
Before joining HHS, DeSalvo was Health Commissioner for New Orleans, and Senior Health Policy Advisor to New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu, from 2011-2014. She worked to transform the outmoded health department in New Orleans to one that achieved national accreditation, and she restored healthcare to devastated areas of the city, including leading the establishment of a public hospital in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Karen Guice, MD, is Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense - Health Affairs. For more than six years, Guice has served as one of the key leaders in federal medicine, propelling a number of critical health information technology initiatives forward in a manner that has improved military medical readiness, improved health and care delivery for both the 9.4 million Americans who rely on the Military Health System and the millions of Veterans who have transitioned from Department of Defense care to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Lisa Stump serves as the chief information officer of Yale New Haven Health System and the Yale School of Medicine. She not only has been a critical bridge between the two institutions, but also between information technology and clinicians to help provide the best possible patient care.
As a leader at YNHH, Lisa has mentored numerous other women in many different areas of healthcare and information technology. The person nominating her for the award, said: "She has relentlessly pushed innovation, centralized around the enterprise EHR wherever possible."
Christina Caraballo is Senior Healthcare Strategist at Get Real Health. At Get Real Health, Caraballo spearheaded and managed certifying the company's flagship product to become one of the first 2014 Edition Modular Certified EHR Technologies for hospitals and eligible professionals to meet meaningful use Stage 1 and 2, which led to five-hospital systems selecting the company's solution to meet meaningful use for patient engagement as early as Q2 of 2014.
Shareefa Alabulmonem is head of eServices, Office of the CIO at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Saudi Arabia. In her personal time, noted the person who nominated her, she helped create the Zahra Breast Cancer Association, which assisted in educating the country to raise breast cancer awareness, developing training programs for medical staff, influencing policy makers on the mission and objectives of the association, establishing outreach programs for women in rural and remote areas, launching screening clinics throughout Saudi Arabia and creating specialized services for breast cancer patients.
"In a country where women are perceived to be a silent voice," wrote the person who nominated her for the award, "Shareefa lets her work and accomplishments do the screaming."
