Data and physician champion, departmental bridge builder, time manager, clinician motivator and ever-ready intermediary are among the hats CMIOs wear on any given day. Recently, CMIO convened roundtable featuring members of our editorial advisory board, to discuss what it means to be an informatics leader today.

The roundtable discussion that leads off this issue included a lively discussion of the evolution of roles among CMIOs and CIOs. The titles hold different responsibilities in almost every organization, but in general, our roundtable participants observed that CMIOs in some facilities are taking on more duties in the non-IT realm, at the same time when more CIOs are getting more knowledgeable about clinical IT systems.

Accessible information is the bedrock of meaningful use, and solid documentation across clinical departments takes a team effort that involves nursing leaders and nursing information systems as well as the CMIO and IT leadership. The rewards are becoming more evident, but revamping processes will require all stakeholders.

In the good old days, image management was an insiders club largely comprised of radiologists and PACS administrators well-versed in the nuances of DICOM, modality worklists and imaging informatics. Today, however, image management is hurdling toward an enterprise model characterized by broader, looser boundaries. So, whats the motto? A multi-ology archive for all.

Despite promising results from pilot programs among underserved populations in urban areas, telehealth hasnt taken off. The barriers arent always technical: for example, telehealth has been something of a regulatory afterthought until quite recently. What will it take to get from promising pilot programs to widespread use?

A recent blog in The New York Times online stated that modern healthcare delivery is becoming ever more dependent on computers, with bedside medicine evolving into desktop medicine.

Regardless of whether youre new to the clinical IT trenches, or well-entrenched, you should plan to attend the Clinical IT Leadership Forum: Beyond The EMR: Finding Real Innovations to Heal Healthcare on June 10 in Boston. Well tell you why.

Telehealth service provider American Well unveiled Online Care For Providers, an offering in its Online Care Suite that enables physician practices to offer live, on-demand consultations to patients in their homes or workplaces via the web or phone.