The Path to EHR Implementation: Strategies for Success

Learn more about the panelists speaking at ACHE-NJ's 2022 Fall Congress.

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MODERATOR

Dr. Lauren Koniaris became the Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Hackensack University Medical Center in 2008 and was instrumental in the implementation of HUMC’s transition to the electronic medical record there. Following the creation of Hackensack Meridian Health, Dr. Koniaris helped lead the successful EMR roll out for 13 acute care hospitals over 15 months for the HMH Network, focusing on physician engagement and standardization of workflows and policies. During the Covid-19 pandemic she helped lead build efforts for Covid-related order sets, testing and vaccine administration. She is Chief Medical Informatics Officer at HMH (one of two), and currently focuses time on optimization efforts as well as informatics build supporting predictive analytics projects.

Dr. Koniaris is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine and Internal Medicine. She is also certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Clinical Informatics. She has practiced Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine since 1998 and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Hackensack Meridian Health School of Medicine. She was named to one of Becker’s Women Power Players in Health IT in 2022.

PANELISTS

Aarti Ravikumar, MD, MBA, is the Atlantic Health Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) and in her role collaborates helps to evaluate, design and implement health information technology to improve clinical efficiency, quality and patient safety and patient outcomes.

Prior to her role at Atlantic Health System, Dr. Ravikumar has held previous roles including performance improvement manager and faculty endocrinologist at Montefiore Medical Center and Chief Medical Officer at Sun Scientific, a medical device company. She is dual board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology and currently is an endocrinologist at AMG Diabetes and Endocrine Institute. She received her MBA from Columbia University and undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford University. She completed her medical degree at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and her residency training at Montefiore Medical Center where she was the recipient of the Barry Mishkin award for humanity, ethics and excellence in the practice of medicine as well as the Outstanding Resident Award. She completed her endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital where she was appointed the chief endocrinology fellow.

John Novak, Chief Information Officer, Vice President Information Services, leads the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center’s Information Service Division to implement business cases to ensure stable and reliable service delivery to a rapidly evolving health care organization. As part of his efforts, he has established information technology standards, policies, and roadmaps for the division. His past experience includes numerous IT infrastructure assessments and extensive projects related to Health IT transformation, interoperability and innovation.

Prior to his time at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, John was the Senior Director of Government Technology and Architecture for New Jersey Innovation. His experience also includes being the Director of Information Technology and Reporting for Beacon Health Options where he led the establishment, operations of the regional engagement center to support the outsourcing of the behavioral health and substance abuse business for a major health insurer in New Jersey. John also worked for Barnabas Health as a Director of Technology Resources and System Director of Project Management.

John holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Project Management Professional (PMP) and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Robert T. Adamson, PharmD, FASHP, is the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for RWJBarnabas Health. In this role he is responsible for strategic planning, technology leadership and vision for the health system and enabling information technology initiatives to execute health system strategic imperatives. He also maintains the role of Operational Leader for The EPIC Electronic Health Record implementation. In this current role he leads all operational aspects of the Epic implementation and provides strategic direction and overall management of the Epic implementation project.

Prior to taking his role in September 2019 he served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer for RWJBarnabas Health. His responsibilities included strategic planning for the pharmacy enterprise, designing, managing and improving the medication use system ensuring quality outcomes through performance-improvement activities, and fulfill the organization’s research, educational missions and pharmacy enterprise financial performance.

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from St. John's College of Pharmacy, he earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University College of Pharmacy, where he is currently an adjunct instructor.

Dr. Adamson has conducted several disease research studies in the areas of infectious disease, oncology and oncology supportive care, and various internal medicine subjects. He is a recipient of the Greg Santora New Jersey Pharmacist of the Year Award, and was bestowed fellowship designation in 2014 by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, among a wealth of professional awards and honors. He has published widely in prestigious medical journals, serves on the editorial board of major periodicals in his field and has presented at more than 500 medical conferences nationally, internationally as well as on television.