The Women in Health IT Roundtable at HIMSS17 in Orlando included the seven recipients of the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award, as well as the judges for the initiative. The conversation focused on the influence women can have in the workplace.
"It’s so important that women understand how influential we are, and how much change we can provoke from wherever we are," said Adrienne Eden, vice president of education at CHIME and one of the judges for the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards at the roundtable discussion. “The award was meant to wake up all of our women colleagues and say we want you too. All of you can start influencing now."
Willa Fields (pictured, left) is a professor in the School of Nursing at San Diego State University, where she teaches graduate courses in informatics, performance improvement and healthcare policy. “The take-home message for those of you who do accidentally find out that somebody is making a substantial amount more than you, it behooves you to speak up,” Fields said. “Do it professionally. I didn’t go angrily. I went to my boss in a very nice way, and I found myself with a healthy raise," she said during an October 2016 interview. At the roundtable she also suggested seeking guidance when need be. "We will take twists and turns. I don’t think anybody in this room had a linear path to where they are today."
Helen Donnelly is the executive Director, Strategy & Communications at Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “I feel the need to support women in technology is not a gender issue, it’s a workforce issue," Donnelly said in a HIMSS17-TV interview.
Christina Caraballo, Senior Healthcare Strategist at Get Real Health at the Women in Health IT Roundtable at HIMSS17. "By surrounding yourself with women who think like you and want to encourage you instead of those who want to put you down or feel threatened, you get so much further," Caraballo advised.
Diane Carr is deputy executive director of operations and CIO at Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital. She is a member of the HIMSS North America Board of Directors and chair of the finance committee. "As leaders, it is essential that we develop a top-down and bottom-up approach to challenge institutional biases inside our organizations and create new partnerships outside them," Carr shared in September 2016.
Shareefa Albulmonem is head of eServices, Office of the CIO at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Saudi Arabia and one of the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards. "I believe technology drives a majority of the advancements we are currently witnessing throughout the world, and the same applies in healthcare. King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center has given me the platform to leverage and implement technology for the betterment of health, patient and citizen care," Albulmonem said in an interview in January 2017.
Marion Ball is senior advisor, IBM-Center for Computational Health and recipient of the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award. Advice she offered during the Roundtable, “Have confidence in yourself. You're lucky if you have mentors at a very early stage of your development. The opportunity to know, particularly in this country, [is] that your world is your oyster," Ball said during the Roundtable discussion.
Karen DeSalvo, MD, is the former ONC National Coordinator for Health IT and Acting Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a recipient of the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award. “Stay in the moment and really be focused on the work at hand," DeSalvo said when asked what advice she would offer women in the profession. "Be open to exploring a path that may take a different direction."
Karen Guice, MD, (pcitured, left) is the former acting assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, US Department of Defense and recipient of the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award. "It’s when you take a risk, when you step out of that comfort zone that you can really have some wonderful experiences: good or bad. And the other learning lesson is that some of my bad work experiences have been my most advanced learning opportunities," she said during the Roundtable discussion.
On right, Christina Caraballo, Senior Healthcare Strategist at Get Real Health.
Lisa Stump is a senior vice president and CIO at Yale New Haven Health and Yale School of Medicine. She was one of seven women to receive HIMSS' first-ever Most Influential Women in Health IT Award. "This one, for me, was really a call to action," Stump said about winning her award this year.
Carla Smith is Executive Vice President of HIMSS and moderated the Women in Health IT Roundtable at HIMSS17. "Everybody wins in this because we raise the water for all." Smith noted Women in Health IT was a grassroots initiative that had grown over the span of just one year. At HIMSS17, there were more than 800 women attending the reception celebrating the awardees.
