CMIO Leadership Academy 2.0

For the last several years, CHIME has sponsored a program for CMIOs and other Clinical Informaticists in association with the CHIME Fall Forum. This year, we’re doing something quite different. First, instead of scheduling the program at the end of the Fall Forum when everyone else is packing up to go home, we’ve moved it to the beginning of the Forum. We’ll start the afternoon of Monday, October 29^th and continue all day on Tuesday, October 30^th. Then we’ll join the Welcome Reception that kicks off the Fall Forum Tuesday evening. That way, our attendees can stay for all or part of the Fall Forum (at a significantly reduced rate). Last year, CHIME launched a Clinical Informatics Track of presentations, and it was one of the most popular and best reviewed set of sessions of the entire program.

Perhaps more importantly, the program we’re presenting is entirely new. The CMIO Leadership Academy 2.0 is the result of the feedback we’ve received from the alumni of the CMIO Leadership Academy and its predecessor, the CMIO Boot Camp. I can’t tell you the number of alums who have stopped me at meeting to say, “I loved the CMIO Leadership Academy. It was one of the best programs I’ve ever attended. Should I take it again? What’s next?”

The CMIO Leadership Academy 2.0 is what’s next. Our challenge has always been that we have far more material than we have time to present it. 2.0 gives us a chance to offer some critical topics that didn’t receive the attention they deserve in the 1.0 program due to time constraints. For example, Governance and Project Prioritization are critical issues that all Informatics leaders struggle with. This is especially true as we all pivot from implementation projects to optimization. How do we pick the enhancements and performance improvement initiatives that will give us the most benefit? While we certainly touch upon governance during 1.0, in 2.0 we’re giving it explicit recognition with a presentation and a brand-new case exercise.

In Leadership Academy 1.0, we talk about the difference between Change Management and Change Leadership. In 2.0, we’re specifically addressing the Project Management skills Informatics leaders need to advance their agendas and their organizations.

This is going to sound weird but learning how to build and present a Business Plan was a skill that changed my career and—in some ways—changed my life. However, talking about budgets and business plans does not typically move and inspire an audience. More than any other single topic, our alumni tell us this is a skill they need. But, when we tried to present it in the past, we didn’t really nail it the way we wanted to. This time, we’re going to slow down and have some fun with the topic with an all new presentation and a new case study. I’m serious: this could change your life!

During Leadership Academy Q&A sessions, I think the most common questions focus on Organizational Politics and managing relationships. So, we’ve built a presentation and dialog around that topic. I think this will be one of the most engaging and animated of all the sessions.

I’m particularly excited about our special guest speaker. Ordinarily, the faculty for the Leadership Academy are all clinicians. But, we’re making an exception for Dale Sanders, who will speaking about Analytics and Data Governance. Dale is the President of Technology at Health Catalyst. He is also one of the most creative minds in our industry today. He will talk about the need for Clinical Informaticists to be leading Analytics programs, and the things most organizations are doing wrong today. This will be an amazing session that will really get you thinking.

As I said, we are always struggling with more content than we can handle. This time, we’ve built a series of 10 to 15-minute presentations that we call Quick Fixes. They’re designed to fire up your imagination and give you some things you can take home and build. The faculty is also going to do a little prognostication with a session called Look into the Future.

One other thing. Our alumni tell us that the most unexpected benefit of past programs is the relationships they build with the faculty and other participants. Many walk in unsure of what to expect and walk out with a network of resources that can provide advice and support.

So, join us in San Diego. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the weather will be beautiful. And I’m not going out on a limb at all when I tell you that the CMIO Leadership Academy 2.0 is a program that is well worth your time. I hope to see you there.