Shafiq Rab is taking the position of chief information officer and senior vice president at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

He will leave Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., where he has served as CIO and senior vice president of information technology since 2012.

Rush University executives announced their pick for the post after a comprehensive national search. Rab’s first day on the job is set for Jan. 9, 2017.

Michael Dandorph, president of Rush University Medical Center, said Rab’s extensive professional experience combined with his unique medical and public health background is a perfect fit with Rush University.

At Hackensack, Rab has employed technology to help grow a single 775-bed hospital into the largest health system in New Jersey, with more than 3,500 patient beds. He also introduced innovations and tools including bedside iPads and the Apple Health Kit, to give patients and families greater access to their medical records and to more easily communicate with their care teams.

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Moreover, Dandorph noted that Rab’s work at Hackensack led to improved patient outcomes and experience, and also operational efficiencies and taking the organization to the leading edge of mobile health care technology by developing an app that allows patient access to direct appointment scheduling, test results, prescription information and communication with physicians from any device. His team also developed facial recognition technology to accurately match and identify patients with their data.

As Dandorph sees it, as Rush continues to expand, Rab will help Rush use information technologies in creative new ways.

From 2008 to 2012, Rab was vice president and CIO at Greater Hudson Valley Health System in New York, where he led the system’s successful implementation of electronic medical records software. Before that he was vice president and CIO at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey, and CIO/director of information technology/information security officer at Carrier Clinic, East Mountain Hospital in Belle Mead, N.J.

Rab has a Master of Public Health degree from Rutgers University, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from Dow Medical College in Pakistan, where he completed a residency in internal medicine. He also is a certified healthcare chief information officer by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives – CHIME. He has received numerous awards and recognitions and sits on several corporate and industry governing boards.

Rab received the 2015 Innovator of the Year Award from CHIME. The award recognizes people who are at the forefront of adopting technology solutions aimed at arming clinicians and patients with information that can help them make better decisions, as well as reduce healthcare costs.