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Rick Schooler, FCHIME, has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 John E. Gall Jr. CIO of the Year Award. Schooler is chief information officer and vice president at Orlando Health, an integrated delivery system with a variety of healthcare providers in central Florida. Schooler will receive the award at the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas on Feb. 23.
The award, which recognizes lifetime achievement, is sponsored by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and HIMSS. The boards of directors for both organizations annually select the recipient of the award.
"It is truly a great honor to receive this year's John E. Gall award, which I personally regard as the ultimate industry recognition for healthcare CIOs," Schooler says. "Since leaving the telecommunications industry in 1991 to begin my healthcare career, I have had the great privilege of knowing and working with many of the former Gall award recipients. I can say with great admiration and gratitude that my joining this roster of professionals places me in very good company."
The award recognizes health IT executives who have made significant contributions to their organization and demonstrated innovative leadership through effective use of technology. The award is named in honor of the late John E. Gall Jr., who pioneered implementation of the first fully integrated medical information system in the world at California's El Camino Hospital in the 1960s.
Schooler's distinguished career in health IT spans 21 years at three different organizations: Methodist Hospital of Indiana, Central Georgia Health System and Orlando Health. In each role, he made significant accomplishments in the deployment of electronic health records and information technology in complex environments. Before his career in healthcare, he worked nine years for Ameritech, General Dynamics and Computer Systems Corporation.
Rick Schooler has been a member of CHIME since 1994 and a member of HIMSS since 1992. He has a long history of significant contributions to both organizations. He is a CHIME Fellow who has served on the CHIME Board of Trustees and as chair of the CHIME Foundation. He has been active in CHIME's advocacy initiatives, serving on the Advocacy Leadership Team and as an Advocacy State Coordinator.
As a senior member of HIMSS, he has served on the HIMSS Public Policy/Advocacy Committee and has been an active member of the Indiana and North Florida HIMSS chapters. Rick has also been a frequent attendee and presenter at local and national meetings of both organizations.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Central Florida Regional Health Information Organization and recently served on the Board of Directors for the Health Care Center for the Homeless. He is also a member for the Industrial Advisory Board for the Purdue University College of Technology, the KLAS CIO Advisory Board and the Healthcare Informatics Editorial Board.
"CIOs now enter a time that requires we understand the demands of healthcare's present reality and future implications and that we demonstrate the ability to lead and provide information solutions of tangible value," Schooler says. "Building upon the foundation of effective workflow automation through EMRs and source data capture, the incessant need for information integration, exchange and analytics throughout the continuum of care will only grow. I've been fortunate to see nearly the entire spectrum of computing evolve since I began my career as a computer operator in 1978 while attending college as a pre-med major. Although it's been said before by others, I will say it again; there has never been a better time to be a healthcare CIO."
www.cio-chime.org
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