Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare has named its new chief information officer.

WHY IT MATTERS
Ryan Smith has been chosen for the role after an exhaustive search to succeed Marc Probst, the current CHIME-HIMSS CIO of the year, who is retiring.

Smith, who starts later this month, has worked for Intermountain before – he was there for nearly two decades, from 1994 through 2013, serving in a variety of IT leadership positions.

His goal now will be to align the sprawling health system's strategic goals to improve patient experience, boost quality and lower costs, thus enabling further digital innovation and growth.

For the past two years, Smith has been SVP at Salt Lake City's Health Catalyst, where he consulted with healthcare executives nationwide about data and technology.

Previously, Smith served for five years as CIO at Phoenix-based Banner Health, from 2013 to 2018, where he launched innovative digital business strategies, supported geographic expansion, and built a strategic partnership with Cerner – whose longtime partnership with Intermountain was recently extended.

THE LARGER TREND
Intermountain is a longtime health IT leader with its two-dozen hospitals, 215 clinics and a health insurance company, SelectHealth.

Much of that innovation has occurred under the leadership of the departing Marc Probst, who served as CIO for 17 years and was recognized in January by CHIME and HIMSS as the John E. Gall Jr. CIO of the Year.

ON THE RECORD
"Ryan is a proven leader who understands and exemplifies Intermountain's mission, vision and values and brings extensive experience in successfully managing complex, dynamic information systems," said Dan Liljenquist, Intermountain's senior vice president and chief strategy officer.

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
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