Vivek H. Murthy, M.D., who served as the 19th surgeon general of the United States from December 2014 to April 2017, will be the opening keynote speaker on Feb. 11 at the CHIME (@CIOCHIME) HIMSS CIO Forum in Orlando, Fla. Murthy is credited with modernizing the role of surgeon general with 21st century approaches and technology.
As surgeon general, he made improving health his top priority. He issued the first Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health, and his last Surgeon General’s Report was on e-cigarettes and youth. He launched the TurnTheTideRx campaign to address the nation’s opioid epidemic and was the first surgeon general to issue a call-to-action letter to health professionals across the nation to reduce opioid addiction and overdose deaths.
Prior to becoming surgeon general, he practiced and taught internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. During his career, he co-founded Visions, a peer-to-peer HIV/AIDS education program in India and the U.S., which he led for eight years. He also co-founded the Swasthya project (“health and wellbeing” in Sanskrit), a community health partnership in rural India to train women to be health providers and educators; TrialNetworks, a software technology company that developed collaborative technology for accelerating clinical trials (acquired by DrugDev in 2014); and Doctors for America, a nonprofit that organizes physicians across the U.S. to advocate for high-quality, affordable healthcare for all.
“Dr. Murthy’s vision for a healthy America and a healthy world mirrors what we at CHIME want to achieve using healthcare IT,” said CHIME Chair-Elect Shafiq Rab, M.D., senior vice president and CIO at Rush University Medical Center. “As surgeon general, he put a spotlight on factors that need to be addressed to combat epidemics like obesity and opioid addiction. We are honored to have Dr. Murthy kick off our spring forum.”
The CHIME HIMSS CIO Forum will take place Feb. 10-11 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando Hotel in Orlando. More information about the forum and registration is available here.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,800 members in 51 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve.
