H. Stephen Lieber, longtime president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, is retiring at the end of 2017.
HIMSS, a trade group that promotes health information technology, said it is conducting a global search for a replacement, which it expects to complete in the summer. Lieber will work alongside the replacement over the final months of 2017 to ensure a smooth transition.
Lieber, 63, has served as president and CEO of Chicago-based HIMSS since April 2000 and led the organization through years of tremendous change in healthcare and health IT.
Under his leadership, HIMSS grew to reach hundreds of thousands of healthcare organizations in 35 countries through its educational programs, advisory services and community networks.
Along the way, Lieber became an leading voice advocating for health IT best practices and interoperability. He has been named to Modern Healthcare's list of the 100 most influential people in healthcare several times, most recently in 2014.
Before coming to HIMSS, Lieber was a vice president at the American Hospital Association and, before that, was executive director of the Emergency Nurses Association.
Lieber was one of the founders of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology and the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel, both federally funded initiatives promoting interoperability in health IT.
“HIMSS has seen tremendous growth in size, reach and influence during Steve's leadership,” Dr. Sebastian Krolop, chair of the board at HIMSS and a vice president and partner at the Philips Healthcare Transformation Services. “Steve has provided the right balance of strategic and operational leadership necessary for HIMSS to transform from a small, U.S.-only based professional society to a large, globally focused diversified organization.”
