DeFord departs Steward for Next Wave Health

A year after leaving Seattle Children's Hospital for Boston, Drexel DeFord has left his position as CIO of Steward Health Care System and joined venture capital firm Next Wave Health as a principal adviser.

Next Wave Health, headquartered in Dallas, provides startup healthcare technology companies with initial funding and growth capital, as well as operational services to foster their growth. DeFord said in a news release announcing the move that he jumped at the opportunity to work with Next Wave's founder, Ivo Nelson. Nelson is credited with helping steer Perot Systems into healthcare, and he was the founder and CEO of Healthlink, a consultancy acquired by IBM in 2005.

DeFord, a former chief technology officer for the U.S. Air Force health system, was board chair of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives in 2012. He was CIO at Seattle Children's for four years before joining Steward in July 2012. The private equity-backed for-profit system has made aggressive moves into accountable care and population health and operates one of 32 accountable care organizations participating in the CMS Innovation's Center's Pioneer ACO program.

A Steward spokesman said Julie Berry, the system’s chief technology officer since 2011, succeeded DeFord as CIO.