Familiar names in health information technology as well as lesser-known leaders were honored today at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives' 2011 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio.

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare received the 2011 Transformational Leadership award, presented by CHIME and the American Hospital Association, in recognition of its use of analytics to determine the optimal gestational age—39 weeks—at which babies should be delivered. Through data mining, Intermountain found that babies born at 37-38 weeks and those born at 40 weeks were more likely than those born at 39 weeks to experience respiratory distress syndrome. Reducing the number of medically unnecessary early inductions improved patient outcomes, reduced delivery complications and cut costs throughout the system, according to CHIME.

A group of hospital systems, provider organizations and long-term-care facilities in New Jersey working together through the Jersey Health Connect health information exchange won the CHIME Collaboration Award. Atlantic Health System spearheaded the formation in 2007 of what would become the JHC; today, the not-for-profit organization aims to improve care coordination through real-time data exchange, promote information exchange throughout the region and ensure ongoing compliance with national information-exchange standards and privacy and security regulations.

CHIME presented a lifetime achievement award to Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman, who oversaw the company's billion-dollar acquisition of Eclipsys last year. In 2007, Tullman helped found the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative.

Finally, Dedra Cantrell, chief information officer of Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare, received CHIME's Innovator of the Year award. Cantrell oversaw development of Emory's Global Patient Registration program, which was designed to better coordinate patient registration to maximize care efficiency and provide the best experience possible for patients.

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