HIMSS Award Gala to recognize compassionate caregivers
Deborah Dahl, vice president of patient care innovation, at Banner Health and David Weingard, a Microsoft veteran who founded Fit4D, will be presented with the Kate Grainger Compassionate Care Award at Tuesday night’s HIMSS Gala.
The award is named in honor of Kate Granger, an English doctor who dedicated her life to raising awareness around compassion in healthcare.
Carla Smith, HIMSS North America executive vice president, said the recipients “leverage people, process and technology to improve patient outcomes and ensure that patients receive high-touch care.”
Dahl is a leader at Banner Health who has brought together diverse teams to select and implement innovative clinical strategies, such as telehealth services, safe surgery and one of the largest simulation medical centers in the world.
Jason Bickford, president-elect of the Arizona Chapter of HIMSS and Director of IT Infrastructure at Banner Health, said “Deborah is a respected health IT patient care innovation leader that consistently delivers advanced level of care to patients that need it most.”
Weingard was working at Microsoft when, at the age of 36, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He decided to leave Microsoft and commit his life to providing positive change to the diabetes community. He founded Fit4D and began fundraising on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Fit4D aims to improve adherence and health outcomes for pharmaceutical, payer and provider organizations by scaling clinician reach. Helping people with diabetes is his passion.
HIMSS17 runs from Feb. 19-23, 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center.
This article is part of our ongoing coverage of HIMSS17. Visit Destination HIMSS17 for previews, reporting live from the show floor and after the conference.
