Tim Zoph, Health IT Advisor & Former CIO, Chapter 3

In today’s health IT industry, there’s a lot of talk about the need for knowledge sharing among leaders, particularly CIOs. But for Tim Zoph, who was recently named chair of KLAS’ Interoperability Measurement Advisory Team, it’s more than just talk. When he was asked to share some of the most valuable lessons learned during his 30-year-career (which includes 22 years as CIO at Northwestern Memorial Hospital), he was happy to oblige. In this interview, Zoph offers perspective on the areas of utmost importance to health IT leaders, including talent management, operational excellence, work/life balance, and being a partner in the industry. He also discusses the new expectations of the CIO role — a hybrid of change agent, senior leader, and innovator; why teaching CHIME Boot Camp has been so rewarding for him; and what’s next in his journey.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* “The next 5-10 years are going to be even more challenging.”

* Senior leader/change agent/innovator

* “Real-world stories” at Boot Camp

* Work/life balance

* “We need to do more to prepare future leaders.”

* The next chapter



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Bold Statements

It’s important to recognize that everything that you’ve done to get to this early phase of adoption of technology — those are important skills, but they’re not the skills of the future.

Part of this is how we prepare CIOs — how we can better train them, how they can better place talent underneath them, how we can work with senior teams of leaders to really understand what the role of the CIO is and what the role of the rest of the senior team is as healthcare becomes a solely digital business.

It’s a little disconcerting to think we’re going to change the pathway to leadership. But if you look to other industries, they’re looking for senior leader, change agent, innovator first, and technologist second.

Part of it is what we teach, but part of it is environment that we create, the relationships we build, the experiences we share, and I love that kind of environment. I love being a part of creating it. I love to participate in it. I love to engage with the students.

Your life gets so regimented when you have these corporate roles that it’s really important to teach yourself to do something different and to actually put some perspective on it.

Gamble:  This is a big question, but we’ve seen how much the role has evolved. How do you think the CIO role is going to continue to evolve in the coming years to continue to be that leader?

Zoph:  That’s a great question, and this gets back to some of the research that I’ve recently done for CHIME. But I’d summarize it this way. I think that the skills that have gotten CIOs to where they are today are not necessarily the skillset of the future. I think it’s important to recognize that everything that you’ve done to get to this early phase of adoption of technology — those are important skills, but they’re not the skills of the future.

What we’ve also seen is that forces for change in healthcare are really significant. The pressures on healthcare are only going to grow. We think this has been a challenging period, but the next five to 10 years are going to be even more challenging. Consolidation, security, consumer choice on healthcare, changing regulatory payment system, you know all those things, so the challenges are only going to get greater.

What we’ve seen is in terms of the expectations for the CIO role, there’s always been a gap with the CIO role between what the CI...