Stephen Lieber, longtime CEO and president of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), has announced he’ll be retiring at the end of 2017. The search for his replacement has already begun.

Lieber has been at the helm of the 65,000-member healthcare technology trade group since 2000. The society’s press release credited his tenure as helping health IT be embraced as “a primary asset in addressing problems associated with the cost, quality and access of health and care.”

“The past 17 years at HIMSS have been the most exciting and rewarding time of my professional life,” Lieber said. “I feel that our work at HIMSS has resulted in considerable improvements to the quality of care delivered to patients, to the safety of the treatments they receive and to the value of care provided. I hope that, in some way, I can continue this work of making care better and safer through information technology.”

Executive search firm Egon Zehnder has been hired to find Lieber’s successor. The expectation is the replacement will be chosen by the summer of 2017 and will then serve alongside Lieber until the end of the year to “ensure a smooth transition.”

“HIMSS has seen tremendous growth in size, reach and influence during Steve’s leadership,” said Sebastian Krolop, MD, PhD, chairman of the HIMSS Board of Directors. “Steve has provided the right balance of strategic and operational leadership necessary for HIMSS to transform from a small, US-only based professional society to a large, globally focused diversified organization. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Steve for his passion, constant dedication and outstanding efforts.”