Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Chief Information Officer receives Healthcare CIO of the Year Award

 For release: January 7, 2019

ANN ARBOR, Mich. —Ed Kopetsky receives the award from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) announced today that Ed Kopetsky, chief information officer for Stanford Children’s Health and regarded as a pillar in the health information technology industry, has been chosen to receive the 2018 John E. Gall Jr. CIO of the Year award. As stated in a press release from CHIME and HIMSS, whose boards jointly select the recipient, “the award is given annually to a CIO who has shown significant leadership and commitment to the healthcare industry during his or her career.”

Nationally recognized

“Ed is nationally recognized for his contributions to the industry,” said Dennis Lund, MD interim chief executive officer and chief medical officer for Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. “His accomplishments and the level of excellence of the Information Services department at Stanford Children’s Health under his leadership embody the spirit and purpose of this award.”

Under Kopetsky’s leadership Stanford Children’s Health has undergone large-scale advances in enterprise systems and customer service. A major milestone for the organization in 2014 was the completion of a strategic three-year implementation of an enterprise electronic health record (EHR) to support integrated patient care, and high-performance business and analytics systems. Since the implementation of those enterprise systems, Kopetsky has also led the development and deployment of enterprise analytics and an innovative digital health program designed to flip the mode of health care delivery; improving access to world-class Stanford physicians and programs and ensuring continuous, supportive care for patients and their families wherever they may be.

“One of Ed’s greatest strengths is his dedication to developing and mentoring others,” said Natalie Pageler, MD, chief medical information officer for Stanford Children’s Health. “He has built an outstanding Information Services leadership team comprised of industry leaders.”

Stanford Children’s Health has received numerous accolades for being an industry leader in health information technology, which Kopetsky’s colleagues credit largely to his collaborative and partnering leadership style.

In 2015, Stanford Children’s Health received the HIMSS Stage 7 Acute Care and Ambulatory Awards and in 2017, earned the international HIMSS Davies Award for improving patient outcomes and care processes using health IT and analytics.

“Stanford Children’s Health’s advances are in large part the result of top-tier partnership between IS and clinicians, and our robust Clinical Informatics program that has been nurtured and supported under Kopetsky,” stated Pageler. Since 2015, the organization has also been named one of the nation’s Most Wired Hospitals by the American Hospital Association and CHIME. In 2016, the Stanford Children’s Information Services department was named one of the Best Healthcare IT Departments by Healthcare IT News.

“Throughout my career, I have had the great fortune to develop and work with talented teams and learn from health care leaders in both provider and industry settings,” Kopetsky said. “I am honored to have been nominated, and to have CHIME and HIMSS select me for this award. It is truly a reflection of the great leaders I work with and the achievements and innovation we are advancing at Stanford Children’s Health.”    

Kopetsky’s interest in health care was sparked early on after entering the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he completed a joint masters in health systems. He is currently chair of the ISyE industry advisory board and is a valued presenter at alumni events. In 2014, he was presented with the Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kopetsky will be honored on Feb. 11 at the 2019 CHIME HIMSS CIO Forum. He will officially receive the award at the HIMSS19 conference that runs Feb. 11-15 in Orlando, FL. The award is named for John E. Gall Jr., who pioneered implementation of the first fully integrated medical system in the world at El Camino Hospital in California in the 1960s.

Media Contact:

Samantha Beal
sbeal@stanfordchildrens.org
(650) 498-7056