Recently, at MEDITECH’s Physician and CIO forum, I sat down with John Lynn, the editor and founder of Healthcare Scene, and also the founder of two conferences, Expo.Health and the Healthcare IT Marketing and PR. He is an entrepreneur with a broad range of IT skills and the ability to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical groups. Some other strengths include a strong experience in healthcare IT (specifically electronic medical records), marketing, blogging, social media and SEO.

As an EHR vendor, it’s our responsibility to know where the industry is going and why. We drive innovation in the healthcare IT space so we can provide the tools clinicians need to care for their patients. The healthcare spectrum is complex, and we know that our technology has to provide interoperable data across care settings.

It’s up to EHR vendors to create solutions that make doctors’ work easier, and give them some much-needed time back. But what doctors do with that time is up to them — so we asked members of our Physician Advisory Committee to share how they like to spend that extra time they’re getting back from their MEDITECH EHR.

Our thought leader podcast series continues with a very special guest: the 2017 CHIME-HIMSS John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year Randy McCleese. Randy currently serves as the CIO at Methodist Hospital, a 192-bed acute care hospital, 25-bed critical access hospital, and 19-practice physician network based in Henderson, Kentucky.

This scenario is all too familiar: It’s nine o’clock at night and a physician is at home catching up on documentation after a full day of patient visits. A recent survey found that physicians were spending two hours of their personal time every night on documentation.

Over the past several years, healthcare organizations have been tasked with taking on more and more regulatory standards. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is just one of the many regulations that the industry is still trying to adjust to. A recent survey found that 64 percent of respondents from provider organizations reported being either unprepared or very unprepared for managing and executing MACRA initiatives. So what exactly is MACRA?

 Tom Stafford, Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Halifax Health, has been selected as one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 Technology Leaders for 2017.

“The Premier 100 awards program highlights the exceptional work of an elite group of IT executives who are leading their organizations through times of unprecedented change. They are using technology to drive high-stakes business projects and create dynamic growth in their organizations,” said Scot Finnie, editor-in-chief of Computerworld.

The Computerworld AGENDA17 conference, including recognition of the Premier 100 Technology Leaders, is scheduled for March 20 to 22, 2017, at Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort and Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

Stafford spoke about his nomination by phone from his office at Halifax Health.