Irvine, California-based UCI Well being this week introduced the promotion of Julie Eastman, RN, who will function the well being system’s new chief data officer.
WHY IT MATTERS
Eastman, who began the job on July 24, has deep experience in each nursing and knowledge expertise, and UCI officers famous her “robust management expertise and a forward-thinking imaginative and prescient that may form the way forward for the expertise infrastructure at UCI Well being.”
For the previous yr and half, Eastman served as affiliate CIO at UCI. Together with her new function, she’ll take the reins from Scott Joslyn – who’ll now focus totally on his job as chief innovation officer on the well being system.
As CIO, Eastman can be tasked with aligning UCI’s data expertise investments with its bigger enterprise and strategic objectives. She’ll handle and keep the well being system’s IT infrastructure and oversee many tasks and initiatives.
She’ll additionally lead a number of departments throughout the IT groups, targeted on software supply and help, medical informatics, telecommunications and biomedical engineering, based on UCI leaders.
“Julie’s distinctive mixture of nursing and IT expertise, management qualities, and imaginative and prescient stood out, making her the perfect alternative for this important function,” mentioned UCI Well being CEO Chad T. Lefteris in a press release. “Her strategic course will support us in integrating the most recent expertise to streamline our operations and uphold our dedication to affected person care excellence.”
Since starting her profession as a essential care nurse, Eastman has held a wide range of expertise management roles in California, together with govt director of data companies at CHOC Youngsters’s and VP of data companies at MemorialCare Well being.
THE LARGER TREND
Regardless of the clear worth of getting a nursing informatics skilled within the function, nurse CIOs are nonetheless a rarity in healthcare.
Earlier this month, Healthcare IT Information spoke with Jung In Park – coincidentally, a professor on the UCI’s College of Nursing – who spoke about a number of the expertise alternatives for the nursing workforce, particularly the use of synthetic intelligence to streamline workflows and improve care supply in RNs’ day-to-day observe.
See additionally these two interviews from HIMSS23 this previous April: How you can make IT and informatics work higher for nurses and Know-how ideas for reinforcing the nursing workforce.
ON THE RECORD
“I’m excited to imagine the CIO place at UCI Well being and to proceed driving our group’s expertise answer supply excellence,” mentioned Eastman in a press release. “I’m deeply dedicated to furthering our mission and look ahead to collaborating extra broadly with our gifted groups and esteemed companions to proceed to ship distinctive, patient-centric options that redefine healthcare within the client digital age.”
Earlier than becoming a member of UCI Well being, Eastman held the place of govt director for Info Companies at CHOC Youngsters’s. Beginning her profession in essential care nursing, she possesses a singular understanding of the intersection of healthcare and expertise.
Mike Miliard is govt editor of Healthcare IT Information
Electronic mail the author: [email protected]
Healthcare IT Information is a HIMSS publication.