Sharp HealthCare's William A. Spooner credited his IT team Wednesday with helping him win CIO of the Year honors.

Spooner, senior vice president and CIO at the San Diego-based healthcare network, will receive the 2009 John E. Gall CIO of the Year Award on March 2 at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 2010 Conference and Exhibition in Atlanta.

"I am truly honored to be recognized in the same context as the industry leaders who have received the Gall Award over the past 20 years," said Spooner. "I am fortunate to work in an organization whose leadership values technology so highly in providing the highest quality patient care and patient service, and to have such a great IT team that makes me look good every day."

CIOs who have received the Gall award in recent years include Patricia Skarulis of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, George T. Hickman of Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y., Timothy Zoph of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and Eric Yablonka of the  University of Chicago Medical Center.

The award, co-sponsored by HIMSS and the College of Healthcare Information Managemernt Executives, recognizes healthcare IT executives who have made significant contributions to their organizations and demonstrated innovative leadership through effective use of technology. It's named for the late John E. Gall Jr., who pioneered implementation of the world's first fully integrated medical information system in the 1960s at California's El Camino Hospital.

Spooner has been with Sharp HealthCare since 1981 and has served as CIO for the past 13 years. His aggressive IT efforts have placed the organization on the Hospitals and Health Networks' "100 Most Wired" list for all nine years since its inception.

Responsible for information technology and telecommunications across Sharp HealthCare, Spooner oversees a department that manages the system-wide clinical, financial and administrative computer systems. He is leading Sharp's efforts to implement physician order entry, a key component of Sharp's patient safety initiative and the foundation for its emerging electronic medical record.

An active contributor and leader of both CHIME and HIMSS, Spooner served as chairman of the CHIME board in 2006 and the CHIME Foundation board in 2007. He has been a frequent presenter at the HIMSS conference and is active in his local chapter.

He is also a member of the Healthcare IT News Editorial Board and the California Hospital Association Health Informatics and Technology Committee.

Most recently, he has volunteered for the CHIME Education Foundation Leadership Circle, a group aimed at raising awareness and funds for the CHIME Education Foundation, which provides scholarships and continuing education funds to future and current CIOs.
 

Please click on the next page for a list of CIO of the Year Award recipients since 1989