Cedars-Sinai Health System announced this week that it had selected Craig Kwiatkowski as senior vice president of Enterprise Information Services and chief information officer.

Kwiatkowski – who has worked for Cedars-Sinai since 2009 – will lead the health system's technology initiatives when it comes to patient care, education, research and community service, along with back-office systems modernization and platform consolidation.  

"I particularly look forward to [continuing to advance] our capabilities in artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics," Kwiatkowski said in a statement.   

"There are so many exciting things happening in these areas that offer opportunities to improve patient care," he said.  

WHY IT MATTERS  

Kwiatkowski, who received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Midwestern University's Chicago College of Pharmacy, has been working in the services and information technology field for decades.

Most recently, he oversaw the entire enterprise application portfolio as vice president and associate chief information officer of applications at Cedars-Sinai, following stints as executive director of enterprise information services and pharmacy services manager.  

He also led the ongoing integration of Cedars-Sinai affiliate Huntington Hospital into Cedars-Sinai's application and technology systems. Before his move to Cedars-Sinai, he worked at the University of Chicago Medical Center for nearly 10 years, first as operations supervisor, then as director of drug information services and finally as pharmacy informatics manager.  

As CIO, Kwiatkowski's leadership will include Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Network, Cedars-Sinai Academic Enterprise and Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital, along with Huntington Hospital and Torrance Memorial Medical Center and their physician networks.  

THE LARGER TREND  

Cedars-Sinai has made headlines over the past few years with its work in AI and ML.

Most recently, researchers from its Smidt Heart Institute created a tool to help identify hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and cardiac amyloidosis, potentially making it easier to detect and treat heart disease.  

A few years prior, researchers at the health system leaned on AI to find patients for clinical trials, giving hospitals the possible chance to improve recruitment and ROI.  

ON THE RECORD   

"Craig’s knowledge and experience will serve us well as we continue to identify and deploy the latest developments in technology to optimize our patient care, education, research and community service mission," said Thomas M. Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai, in a statement.   

"His leadership skills will assure the engagement of clinical, academic, operational and business expertise throughout the organization, which is essential to successful technology strategy and implementation," Priselac added.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.