Celebrating HIMSS Global Health Conference Award Recipients for 2022

From outstanding service to demonstrated leadership in health information and technology, HIMSS honors members whose courage, curiosity and determination are helping transform the global health ecosystem. Congratulations to all award recipients.

Changemaker in Health Awards
HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT
HIMSS Outstanding Chapters and Leaders
HIMSS Global Patient Innovator Award
HIMSS Industry Service Awards
HIMSS Service Awards
HIMSS 2022 Chapter & Foundation Scholarship Recipients

2022 HIMSS Changemaker in Health Awards

HIMSS proudly recognizes six 2022 Changemaker in Health Awards recipients.

The HIMSS Changemaker in Health Awards recognize inspiring senior healthcare executives who rigorously challenge the status quo in their journey to build a brighter health future. The awards celebrate innovative senior executives as they lead change in their relentless pursuit to improve care by harnessing the power of information and technology.

Recipients are determined by public voting, making the HIMSS Changemaker in Health Awards uniquely powerful and a true representation of the voice of health information and technology.

The 2022 Changemaker in Health Award Recipients:

Atif Al Braiki, Chief Executive Officer, Abu Dhabi Health Data Services
Zahid Ali, Founder, TECHMEDO
Pat Flanders, Deputy Assistant Director for Information Operations (DAD IO/J-6) and Chief Information Officer, (CIO)Defense Health Agency
Sherri Hess, MS-IS, BSN, RN-BC, FHIMSS, VP, CNIO, HCA
Camila Murga, MD, Senior Health Informatician, Globant
Alan Weiss, MD, MBA, FACP, Chief Medical Information Officer, Vice President, BayCare Health System

Learn more about this year's award recipients.

2022 HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards

The HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards recognize influential women at all stages of their career progressions. These awards celebrate individuals who harness the power of information and technology to transform health and healthcare; are unique among power lists and award programs; and are inclusive of all women of influence, no matter where they may be in the health information and technology field.

Barbara Casey, MBA

Chief Revenue Officer
Pixel Health

Barbara W. Casey, MBA, is Chief Revenue Officer at Pixel Health, Inc., where she is responsible for strategy, marketing, sales and customer success. Pixel Health is a digital health advisory services organization that works with healthcare providers to advance their digital health strategies and outcomes.

Prior to joining and founding Pixel Health, Casey served as the Global Healthcare Leader for Cisco Systems, Inc. She led a team of industry experts and solutions architects to deliver digital transformation for providers and payers. Under Casey's leadership, her team was responsible for Cisco’s go-to-market strategy incorporating healthcare solutions and partners.

Before Cisco, Casey was a leader in HCA, Inc.'s corporate strategic planning group. Her primary focus was to facilitate HCA’s patient experience strategy by collaborating with various business leaders across the enterprise. In addition to supporting enterprise-level work, she also led strategy and planning efforts for the Central Group (55 hospitals in the Central US and 6 hospitals in London) and its divisions' senior management teams.

Early in her career, she was in the Healthcare Practices of Mercer Management Consulting and Deloitte Consulting.

Casey holds a master of business administration degree with concentrations in organizational development and change and marketing from the University of South Florida. Her bachelor of science degree in clinical psychology was earned from the Florida State University.

At HIMSS, Casey was instrumental in the development of the Infrastructure Adoption Model with HIMSS Analytics (INFRAM) in 2018. Currently, she is an active board member on the local TN HIMSS chapter.

Didi Davis

VP, Informatics, Conformance and Interoperability
The Sequoia Project

Didi Davis has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry with emphasis on informatics, conformance testing, implementation, development and management of information technology solutions and healthcare workflow requirements. She serves as the VP, Informatics, Conformance and Interoperability for the Sequoia Project, a 501©3 not for profit organization in Washington, DC. Her expertise includes connecting people, processes and technology to improve health care. She is responsible for driving the interoperability among health IT systems including QHINS, implementers within the Carequality framework, the eHealth Exchange network and for the RSNA Image Share Validation programs managed by Sequoia. She is responsible for the operations of eight testing programs for Sequoia. She leads a group of experts from a wide range of stakeholders across the U.S. to develop specific and pragmatic implementation guidance on improving data quality of the clinical content exchanged among networks and communities in the data usability workgroup.

Davis is nationally known as a subject matter expert for healthcare standards, interoperability design and strategy for all healthcare stakeholders including consumers, hospitals, physician practices, public health, health information exchanges and vendors. She volunteers in several roles nationally and internationally including on the Tennessee HIMSS Board and the IHE International Board of Directors. She is the Executive Board for the Global Consortium for eHealth Interoperability and is a member of the HL7/IHE Project Gemini Steering Committee.

She has served in many executive level positions previously, including as the CEO for Carespark, Inc., and as the CTO for the Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIPTN).

Mary Griskewicz, MS, FHIMSS

Director of Federal Affairs
Cigna

Mary P. Griskewicz, MS, FHIMSS, is Director of Federal Affairs for Cigna, and she is responsible for federal health policy with a focus on virtual and health information technology, privacy and security and health equity. She joined Cigna in 2018 to analyze and develop federal health policy and regulatory frameworks and solutions to improve the health, well-being and peace of mind for clients and customers.

She understands the value of dialogue with policymakers and meets with members of the executive branch and federal agencies. Her collaborative efforts extend to industry associations, valuable relationships where she interacts with public policy peers and associates.

Putting the patient first, Griskewicz has worked across the healthcare continuum in care delivery settings, technology companies, nonprofits, and insurance/care including leadership positions at HIMSS, GE Healthcare and Yale New Haven Health with management positions at IDX Systems, Tek Systems, Aetna and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Health IT informs her volunteer efforts. She is chair of the HIMSS Public Policy committee and serves on the NEHIMSS Chapter as board-at-large member, chair of chapter Advocacy committee and mentor for the Mentor Committee. She serves as an advisor to the AHIMA CEO Council and policy council member of American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and CAIRN alliance.

She is a speaker and instructor on health IT and Associate Editor of Participatory Healthcare a Person-Centered Approach to Healthcare Transformation.

She holds a BA in political science from Central Connecticut State University, an MS in industrial relations from the University of New Haven.

Atefeh Riazi

Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Atefeh Riazi is Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she oversees the integration of data and technology resources across MSK and develops the data and digital platforms that will enable MSK to meet critical patient care and research objectives.

For more than seven years, she held the post of Assistant Secretary‐General and Chief Information Technology Officer of the United Nations, transforming the technology function into a strategic partner. Riazi is also the Executive Director of the nonprofit CIOs Without Borders.

Earlier, Riazi was the Executive Vice President and CIO of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) — also acting as its General Manager, responsible for a $3B organization staffed by over 12K employees. Prior to that, Riazi served as the global CIO of communications giant Ogilvy & Mather for more than nine years, overseeing all technology across 400 offices in 100 countries.

In her preceding role as the Vice President and CIO of MTA New York City Transit, Riazi implemented the extraordinarily successful $2 billion automated fare collection system (MetroCard).

Tania Tajirian, MD, CCFP, FCFP, DTMPH

Chief of Hospital Medicine and Chief Medical Information Officer
Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH)

Tania Tajirian is the Chief of Hospital Medicine and the inaugural Chief Medical Information Officer at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a leading mental health teaching and research hospital in Canada. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and is also the site Chief of the Department of Family & Community Medicine. Over the past nine years Dr. Tajirian has implemented hospital-wide quality improvement initiatives through the launch of CAMH’s Electronic Health Record (I-CARE). She is also a physician wellness liaison and her academic interests are on how to improve efficiencies of practice and reduce EHR/IT related clinician burnout. She has developed a multi-pronged strategy that focuses on engaging and inspiring physicians in digital health leadership at CAMH. Tajirian has been instrumental in helping CAMH achieve HIMSS Stage 6 and 7 validations, the HIMSS Davies Award and HIMSS Stage 7 revalidation. She is a health IT leader who passionately devotes her career to advancing digital health for the benefit of patients, families and clinicians.

Jaya Tripathi, MS

Principal Scientist
The MITRE Corporation

Jaya Tripathi is a Principal Scientist at the MITRE Corporation, where she has been architecting solutions to tackle complex, critical problems in the healthcare domain.

She has been applying her advanced analytics expertise on multiple projects, taking them from concept design to implementation to engaging stakeholders in partnerships and technology transfer of solutions. She is the inventor of two actionable tools, one piloted at a hospital in Boston and the other tech transferred to a government agency.

With 30 years of experience using data science across various industries, Tripathi has creatively applied cross-domain techniques on large, longitudinal healthcare datasets, bringing in techniques that have been tried and tested for decades in other domains and introducing them to healthcare.

Her work has covered diverse topics such as data-driven policy simulations to study the effectiveness of addiction treatment policies, prescribing patterns and patient trajectories from transactional controlled substance data, decision-making tool for identifying opioid use disorder, prescription drug fraud and abuse, pharmaceutical supply chain track-and-trace solutions and real-time surveillance of anti-viral drugs. She collaborates with experts in the field from across clinical practice, academia, government and non-profits, joining subject matter expertise with data-driven information to build and pilot evidence-based and actionable systems.

She is frequently selected as a subject matter expert on analytics to address the opioid epidemic on panels at national venues and conferences, including at HIMSS, where she has presented her work at several annual conference meetings.

HIMSS Awards Outstanding Chapters and Leaders

Chapter Leader of the Year

The Chapter Leader of the Year Award recognizes an individual who demonstrates significant leadership and extraordinary contributions to the chapter, the chapters program, and the Society. The Chapter Leader of the Year exhibits a strong commitment to strengthening the health information and technology industry in their local region for the betterment of all members.

Amy Chacko, President, New England Chapter

Amy Chacko's involvement with HIMSS and the New England Chapter spans more than 10 years, serving in various capacities. She dedicates unwavering time to the HIMSS mission through local and national involvement. On a local level, she has participated as a mentor for up-and-coming healthcare professionals for New England HIMSS since 2016. She was a member of the marketing and communications committee for New England HIMSS since 2017 and Chair for the committee from 2018-2019. She served as New England President Elect for 2019-2020 and then as President in 2020-2021. She is currently serving as both Immediate Past President but also as the chair of the chapter Clinical Informatics Council. She has served as a committee member of HIMSS Professional Certification Committee (2016-2018) and is currently Chair of the Chapter Leaders Task Force.

Chapter of the Year

The Chapter of the Year Award recognizes chapters who have had a strong impact on their geographical region in a meaningful way through the works of the chapter to produce health information and technology-centered events, education, initiatives, collaborations, advocacy, and more. The Chapter of the Year Award spotlights the amazing work dedicated volunteers perform every year, and illustrates the impact chapters have on the HIMSS mission and the chapter program as a whole.

Large Chapter of the Year: New York State

The New York State Chapter provided more than 50 hours of education content to its membership on security, nursing innovation, DEI and health system innovation priorities. The chapter has developed governance processes and committee structures leading to successful programming, board engagement and membership growth. The chapter utilized a Balanced Score Card and strong succession planning to achieve goals and showcase member value. New York State established a diversity committee to showcase local health equity initiatives and a compliance committee to provide a safe operating environment and allow for crucial conversations.

Medium Chapter of the Year: South Carolina

The South Carolina Chapter developed a project plan to improve program development that led to increased event attendance and engagement. The full chapter board led a recruitment campaign to increase organizational affiliate membership in the region and share the value of chapter membership with local organizations. The chapter advocated for the increased use of telehealth as a way to tackle health disparities in front of the state legislature.

Small Chapter of the Year: Nevada

The Nevada chapter offers a full slate of virtual events to educate their rural members on interoperability, AI, vaccination tracking and mental health support. The chapter works closely with major universities throughout the state and created a mentorship program benefitting 20 mentees in its first year. An annual career fair provides additional opportunities for members to learn about innovative opportunities in the healthcare field.

Chapter Advocate of the Year

The HIMSS Chapter Advocate of the Year Award recognizes an individual who demonstrates significant leadership and extraordinary contributions in state, local or provincial policy advocacy on behalf of their chapter.

Ian Slade, Advocate for Southern California Chapter, Chair for Chapter Advocacy Task Force

Ian Slade started his healthcare journey as a trauma nurse when he was 19 years old. Ian identifies himself as a patient advocate first and a technologist second. His true passion is to help the underserved and underprivileged. In the past 20 years, Ian has served as a HIT consultant in more than 30 hospitals in the U.S., Canada and the UK. For more than half a decade, Ian has been the face of advocacy for Southern California. Ian has helped unite the Northern California and Southern California advocacy groups, coordinating advocacy efforts for patients, healthcare technology and hospitals in the halls of Sacramento and the corridors of Capitol Hill. He currently serves as the Chapter Advocacy Task Force Advocacy Chair and Southern California Chapter Vice President of Advocacy.

HIMSS Industry Service Awards

ACCE-HIMSS Excellence ACCE-HIMSS Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award

The ACCE-HIMSS Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award recognizes leadership in promoting and implementing synergies between the clinical engineering and information and technology professions with contributions either professional or technical in nature. The recipient of the Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award is selected jointly by the Boards of Directors of the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE) and HIMSS.

2022 Recipient: Juuso Leinonen, BEng

Principal Project Engineer
ECRI

HIMSS-AMDIS Physician Executive Leader of the Year Award

The HIMSS-AMDIS Physician Executive Leader of the Year Award recognizes a physician leader who demonstrates significant leadership in optimizing health engagements and care outcomes through information and technology. The award is given for success and achievement as a physician leader championing information and technology to optimal strategic impact. The recipient is selected jointly by the Board of Directors of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) and HIMSS.

2022 Recipient: R. Hal Baker, MD

Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Chief Information Officer
WellSpan Health

HIMSS-ANI Nursing Informatics Leadership Award

The HIMSS-ANI Nursing Informatics Leadership Award recognizes a nursing informatics leader who demonstrates significant leadership contributions by optimizing health engagements and care outcomes through information and technology. This award is given to an individual for success and achievement as a nursing informatics leader in a provider, supplier or academic organization, or a professional society. The recipient is selected jointly by the HIMSS Board of Directors and the Governing Directors of the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI).

2022 Recipient: Marisa Wilson, DNSc, MHSc, CPHIMS, RN-BC, FAMIA, FIAHSI, FAAN

Interim Department Chair, Associate Professor, and Director of the Graduate Leadership Pathway
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing

HIMSS Global Patient Innovator Award

The HIMSS Global Patient Innovator Award was established to honor the legacy of Michael Seres, who suffered from Crohn’s disease and in 2020 passed away at the age of 51 from a sepsis infection. A patient advocate and entrepreneur, Michael had a long-standing affiliation with HIMSS as a HIMSS UK Advisory Board member, a HIMSS Future50 Patient Leader, and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences. He was widely considered to be one of the first and most prominent e-patients, helping design and build a digitally enhanced ostomy bag that received FDA clearance in 2014. His invention eased the suffering of millions of people with bowel injuries, chronic gut illnesses and cancer.

2022 Recipient: Jaume Puig Adamuz, MBA

Founder & CEO
Biel Glasses

Jaume Puig Adamuz, electronics engineer and MBA, is founder and CEO of Biel Glasses, where he manages the company. Biel Glasses produce smart glasses that allow people with low vision to be independent by solving their mobility problems using AI, robotics and mixed reality. He created the company because of his son Biel, who was born with low vision.

He has more than 30 years of experience in the technology sector, in marketing, sales and operations management positions in companies such as Deutsche Bank, Telefónica and British Telecom and as an entrepreneur. He has also worked for the Catalonia government leading the digital transformation of public schools classrooms.

At HIMSS, He participated in the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Conference. Biel Glasses was selected to have a booth there, counting with the support of EIT Health.

HIMSS Service Awards

HIMSS John A. Page Distinguished Fellows Service Award

The HIMSS John A. Page Distinguished Fellows Service Award recognizes commendable and long-standing contributions to the society made by a Fellow Member. The HIMSS John A. Page Distinguished Fellows Service Award can be made for a single exceptional contribution, for a sustained contribution, or for a lifetime of exceptional service.

2022 Recipient: Fernando Martinez, PhD, FHIMSS, FCHIME, CHCIO, CISSP, CISM, CISA

SVP/Chief Strategy Officer
Texas Hospital Association

HIMSS Life Fellow Member Award

2022 Recipients:

JoAnn Klinedinst, M.Ed., CPHIMS, PMP, DES, CPTD, LFHIMSS, FACHE, FCAHME
Scott Klink, LFHIMSS
Steven Roth, MBA, CHCIO, LFHIMSS

HIMSS Life Member Award

2022 Recipient: Errol Labat, MBA, CISA, LHIMSS

HIMSS 2022 Chapter & Foundation Scholarship Recipients

The HIMSS Foundation funds several scholarships annually for HIMSS student members who have achieved academic excellence and demonstrate the potential to be future health information and technology leaders. Recipients receive financial awards and complimentary access to the HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition.

HIMSS Georgia Chapter Scholarship

Bayan Karassi

Master of Science in Health Informatics
University of Alabama at Birmingham

HIMSS Foundation Scholarship - Master's

Lavern Smith