Indiana HIE’s Chuck Christian Wins CHIME Policy Leadership Award

ANN ARBOR, MI, Oct. 6, 2017 – Charles (Chuck) Christian, a longtime advocate for applying health IT to improve patient care, has been named the winner of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) 2017 Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership. The honor was announced this week to coincide with National Health IT Week. 

Christian is vice president of technology and engagement at the Indiana Health Information Exchange, which operates the nation’s largest interorganizational clinical data repository. He currently is the vice chair of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee (PSC) and served as the PSC chair in 2011, 2013 and 2016. In addition, he was a member of CHIME’s Board of Directors between 2002 and 2004; chaired the CHIME Board of Directors in 2015; and chaired the CHIME Foundation Board of Directors in 2016.  

“We began talking about advocacy when I was on the CHIME board in 2002 to 2004,” Christian said. “At that point in time, it was advocating for the role of the CIO within the organization because it was just starting to take shape. But as we looked at what was happening in Washington, it became apparent that there needed to be a more expert voice in those conversations.” 

The Federal Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership recognizes a CHIME member who is a chief information officer (CIO) who has demonstrated leadership in educating Congress and administration officials at the federal level about the value of health IT and its role in patient care. Christian has been active on CHIME’s PSC since its inception about a decade ago.  

“Chuck brings the valuable perspective of a CIO with many years of experience in healthcare systems and a heath exchange to our committee and to members of the Hill,” said Marc Probst, PSC chair and CIO at Intermountain Healthcare. “He stays focused on the big picture—that health IT should improve patient outcomes, safety and costs—and helps guide everyone around him toward achieving that goal.”     

Before joining the Indiana Health Information Exchange in 2015, Christian served as vice president and CIO at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga., and CIO at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Ind. He is a fellow and lifetime member of CHIME and a fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). His numerous awards and honors include the John E. Gall HIMSS/CHIME CIO of the Year Award in 2010 and the CHIME Collaboration Award in 2010. 

Christian said that in his role as a member of PSC, he tries to ensure that policymakers have accurate information and hear a variety of perspectives so that they can understand the potential impact of their rules and regulations. In 2018, he hopes the focus in health IT policy will shift toward measuring meaningful outcomes.  

“Interoperability, which I am in the middle of right now, is not one thing, it is many things,” he said. “How do we leverage that to improve the quality of care and inform the care? I will keep working on that.” 

About CHIME 

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,400 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors 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. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org. 

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