Inside CHIME: A Major Honor – Army Names CIO Chani Cordero Health IT Professional of the Year

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8.17.17
By Candace Stuart, Director of Communications & Public Relations, CHIME

Chani Cordero, FACHE, CHCIO, PMI-ACP, CIO, Defense Health Agency Medical Education & Training Campus

Don’t be surprised if you call Chani Cordero’s phone at the Defense Health Agency’s Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) in San Antonio and the Major herself answers rather than her administrative assistant. Freeing staff from daily duties to allow them to attend professional development opportunities is part of her management philosophy. Cordero, CIO of the Texas-based campus, makes a point of giving her 65 IT employees the tools they need to keep METC running smoothly.

Having what she calls “phenomenal” staff has helped Cordero improve IT support for the 800 faculty and staff who oversee 48 medical training programs and 18,000 students annually for the Army, Air Force and Navy. In 2016, her team rolled out a smart phone app, engineered secure audio visual and video teleconferencing capabilities, created an on-site secure demilitarized zone subnetwork and formed a Technology Innovation Group to modernize IT infrastructure. In addition, Cordero saved the campus about $55,000 by weeding out underused software and restructuring vendor processes to make them more standardized and competitive.

This summer the U.S. Army Medical Department named Cordero the Mercury Award for Health Information Technology Professional of the Year in recognition of her “contributions and demonstrated outstanding excellence and achievement in HIT,” according to METC in a Facebook post. “It also recognizes the critical nature of information and its supporting technologies in mission accomplishment.”

In addition to maintaining a talented pool of IT staffers, Cordero takes a pragmatic and strategic approach to select IT projects that fit within the military’s objectives as well as her work life. For instance, knowing that her military assignment could change in a few years, she selects shorter-term projects that support the military’s vision. “I look for the quick wins I can do within a year or two years’ time and then assure that all my projects and initiatives align with that mission in mind,” she said. The mission for her department is to optimize technology to enhance learning.

Along with senior leadership, she prioritizes purchasing by “must have” and “nice to have.” If funding is available after the “must haves” have been met at the end of the fiscal year, then she addresses the other projects. But she also vets projects based on her understanding of each department’s major initiatives and problems, with an analysis of the root cause of a problem to determine if the proposed solution makes sense.

“I often find that it is not technology related,” she said. If it is not, “I tell them that if I add technology to your process, you will just have a faster bad process.”

Cordero’s leadership extends beyond her role as CIO and director of the Information Management Division at METC, noted CHIME Board Chair Liz Johnson. Cordero has served on the CHIME’s Women’s Leadership Committee, Diversity Committee and Education Foundation Scholarship Committee.

“Chani embraces challenges – whether as a Major tackling an IT problem for the Army or as a committee member helping CHIME advance our industry – with determination and focus, but also with grace and humor,” said Johnson, who is CIO of Acute Care Hospitals and Applied Clinical Informatics at Tenet Healthcare Corporation. “This latest award from the Army is well deserved. It will be followed by many more, I’m sure.”

Cordero’s past honors include a Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medals and Army Achievement Medals. Some of her team members also earned accolades for their work in 2016.

Of the many projects Cordero’s team completed in 2016, she takes the most pride in initiatives like the mobile app, which put the military on par with current technology practices, and the METC Technology Innovation Group, which is ahead of the curve. The interdisciplinary innovation group focuses on what the campus might look like in the future and then implements emerging technologies that complement the vision. Among their accomplishments was standardizing the design and technologies in some classrooms, which streamlines faculty training. Next on the horizon is training that better reflects how students now learn skills. That might include folding model simulation and gamification into the curriculum.

More Inside CHIME Volume 2, No. 17: