Lt. Col. Chani Cordero, CIO, Education & Training Directorate, Defense Health Agency, Chapter 1

When you’re a military-based health IT leader, one of the biggest challenges is to identify initiatives that align with the overall organizational strategy — and can be completed within a specific timeframe. Not an easy feat, but any means. For Lt. Col. Chani Cordero, who spent three years as CIO with the US Army’s Information Management Division and Medical Education Training Campus, that project involved a concept that hasn’t yet made its mark in healthcare: gamification.

That could soon change, says Cordero, who believes gaming has enormous potential as both a learning tool for medical students and a motivating factor in patient engagement. In this interview, she talks about how she incorporated gamification into her strategy and how it can be so beneficial. Cordero also discusses the military’s ultimate goal of standardizing IT systems, why it’s critical to bring naysayers into discussions, and what she has learned in her time with the Army. [**Please note that the opinions expressed by Lt. Col opinions are her own, and are not endorsed by the Defense Health Agency or the U.S. Army.]



Chapter 1



* Military Health System’s reorganization to “determine the best strategy to eliminate duplication.”

* 4 components of the METC

* Getting bogged down in ‘day-to-day’ tasks

* Strategic planning – “I make sure an initiative is nested into the strategy of the organization.”

* Exploring different learning modalities

* Leveraging competition to increase engagement

* “It’s not about a game. It’s about making people change their behaviors.”



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Bold Statements

When I look at an initiative, I make sure it’s nested into the strategy of the organization. But I’m also a realist, and so I need to ensure that I have initiatives and goals that support our strategic plan, but also can be done within the timeframe that I’ll be here.

We want to make it engaging for students and bring out that intrinsic value where they aren’t sitting there flipping through 100 pages of PowerPoint secretly wishing they were somewhere else. We want to look at how we can make training more fun, where the student actually wants to do it.

By nature, I’m a healthcare CIO, not an education CIO. And so when I look at initiatives, I’m also thinking about it with my healthcare hat on.

A little bit of competition can make people do something they wouldn’t want to really do. That’s really what gamification is. It’s not about a game; it’s not Candy Crush. It’s about making people change their behaviors.

Gamble:  Thank you so much, Lt. Col. Cordero, for taking some time to speak with us today.

Cordero:  I appreciate the invitation.

 

Gamble:  I think the best way to get started is with an overview of your role as CIO and Director of Information Management Division for the Medical Education Training Campus.

Cordero:  Actually, that’s no longer my title. A couple of months ago, the Defense Health Agency did a reorganization to try to determine the best strategy to eliminate duplication of processes, and so my role was elevated to CIO of what’s called the J7 Education and Training Directorate. Before, I was just CIO of the Medical Education Training Campus; now I’m actually CIO for the entire directorate, which includes the four organizations that fall underneath us.

 

Gamble:  That makes sense. In your role now, what are your prime responsibilities and what are you looking to do?

Cordero:  The Education Training Directorate has four large components, with the largest being the Medical Education Training Campus. That’s the Department of Defense’s largest schoolhouse, providing training for enlisted service members and medical technicians.