Dr. John Halamka

CIO, Harvard Medical School

Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators
30 minutes, 14.1mb, recorded 2007-08-21
Dr. John Halamka

Dr. John Halamka joins Jon Udell on this edition of Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators. He’s a renaissance guy: a physician, a CIO, and a healthcare IT innovator. Lots of people are talking about secure exchange of medical records and portable continuity of care documents. John Halamka is on the front lines actually making these visions real.

Among other activities he chairs the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network (NEHEN), which began exchanging financial and insurance data almost a decade ago and is now handling clinical data as well in the form of e-prescriptions. The technical, legal, and operational issues are daunting, but you’ll enjoy his pragmatic style and infectious enthusiasm.

They also discuss the national initiative to create a standard for continuity of care documents that will provide two key benefits. First, continuity both within and across regions. Second, data on medical outcomes that can be used by patients to choose providers, and by providers to study the effectiveness of procedures and medicines.



John Halamka, MD, MS is Chief Information Officer of Harvard Medical School, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network (NEHEN) , Chief Information Officer of the Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI), and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.Dr. Halamka completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University where he received a degree in Medical Microbiology and a degree in Public Policy with a focus on technology issues.

While at Stanford he served as research assistant to Dr. Edward Teller, Dr. Milton Friedman, and presidential candidate John B. Anderson. He authored three books on technology related issues and formed a software development firm, Ibis Research Labs, Inc. Additionally, he served as a columnist for Infoworld, technical editor of Computer Language Magazine and technology consultant to several startup companies.

Resources:

This free podcast is from our Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators series.

For The Conversations Network: