2011 CIO Forum

This year's Healthcare IT Solutions Exchange (HITSE) Conference is the best place for CIOs to learn how to enhance your Meaningful Use strategy at every stage.

In addition to four top medical technology experts, this year's event includes a panel of CIOs discussing what is and is not working in their efforts to meet Meaningful Use objectives. Audience members will have ample time to participate in this forum. Moderated by Anthony Guerra, founder of healthsystemCIO.com, this fully interactive one-and-a-half-hour session panel features:

Gerald S. Greeley, CIO, Winchester Hospital
Gerald Greeley has been the Director of Information Services at Winchester Hospital since 1998. Planning for all facets of information technology and clinical information systems, Gerald leads multiple departments that comprise the Information Services Division including Information Systems, Health Information Management and the Health Sciences Library. In addition, he serves as the Hospital’s designated Security Official.

Before joining Winchester Hospital, Gerald was Director of Information Systems at Milton Hospital, and Assistant Director for Clinical Computing at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Gerald has also worked in related fields at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Gerald is a member of College Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Massachusetts Health Data Consortium CIO Forum and Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS).

Edward D. Ricks, CIO Beaufort Memorial Hospital
Edward D. Ricks, MHA, is the Vice President of Information Services and Chief Information Officer for Beaufort Memorial Hospital in Beaufort, SC. Prior to joining Beaufort Memorial in 2008 he filled the same role for Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, NY. Ed has over twenty years of health care information systems experience, with the last nine years at a senior level.

Ed earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and a Master of Health Administration degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Ed was selected as a Premier 100 IT Leader by Computerworld Magazine in 2011. He is a member of HIMSS and CHIME.

For the ninth year in a row, Beaufort Memorial Hospital was named one of the nation’s Most Wired Hospitals according to the 2011 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study printed in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.

Charles Covin, VP and CIO, Eastern Connecticut Health Network

Charles Covin joined ECHN as a consultant in August 2001 filling the role of Intelisrim CIO and assumed the permanent position of Vice President / CIO in August 2002. In 2010 he assumed the same role for ECHN’s MSO and is responsible for establishing community-wide connectivity, guiding both ECHN and its practices as well community providers in the achievement of meaningful use. Charlie has been involved in the field of healthcare Information Technology for thirty-eight years. Prior to joining ECHN his career included positions in hospitals; in software vendor firms working in product development, implementation and sales; and in consulting specializing in Interim Management and Project Management engagements for a number healthcare clients in the United States and Caribbean.

Charlie is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s degree and of Florida State University with a Master’s, both in the field of Economics. He holds memberships in CHIME (College of Health Information Management Executives), HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society), and HFMA (Healthcare Financial Managers Association). He is a frequent speaker or panelist at a variety of regional and national healthcare IT related functions.

He and his wife, Bess, celebrated their forty-fourth anniversary in April 2011 and they have two grown children, Charles, Jr. and Melinda, and one grandchild, Lilith.