CalRHIO Names CEO
The California Regional Health Information Organization announced that Dr. Donald Holmquest on Aug. 1 will become the group's first full-time CEO, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports. Holmquest is a former astronaut and director of physician adoption of computerized physician order entry for the IT division of McKesson (Rauber, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, 7/12).
"Dr. Holmquest's broad experience in health information technology, medicine and law, along with his experience in helping organizations adopt innovative technologies, will accelerate CalRHIO's progress," said C. Duane Dauner, chair of CalRHIO's CEO search committee and president and CEO of the California Hospital Association (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 7/12).
Holmquest has a law degree and a Ph.D. in physiology and endocrinology. He will replace interim CEO Lori Hack, who is expected to stay on through August to continue work on certain projects.
CalRHIO, which was launched by San Francisco's Health Technology Center, aims to improve health care quality and efficiency in California by encouraging the adoption of health IT.
In related news, CalRHIO this month elected three new members to its board of directors:
- Linda Ackerman, an attorney and staff counsel for Privacyactivism.org;
- Patrick Fry, president and CEO of Sutter Health; and
- Dr. Ronald Jimenez, associate medical director for the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, 7/12).