DANVILLE, April 10, 2006 – Modern Healthcare and HIMSS announced Glenn Steele, Jr., MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Geisinger Health System, as the 2006 CEO IT Achievement Award recipient.

Steele was selected as this year’s sole recipient from a record pool of nominees because he has demonstrated the highest level of leadership and commitment to using IT.

 “Dr. Steele clearly recognizes and strongly believes that IT is instrumental in major system changes to transform the delivery of clinical quality, safety and operational effectiveness.

His focus and unwavering commitment to implementing new and creative ways to deploy IT as a means to improve patient care and the patient experience no doubt led to his selection as this year’s recipient,” said Fawn Lopez, publisher of Modern Healthcare.

A panel of five healthcare executives selected this year’s recipient from a pool of 77 entrants.  The panel included Joel Allison, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System; Mark Neaman, president and CEO of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare; James Noga, CIO of Massachusetts General Hospital; Stephanie Reel CIO & VP, Information Services of Johns Hopkins Health System and Susan Schade, CIO of Partners HealthCare System.

Steele joins a distinguished group of CEO IT Achievement Award recipients, including Joel Allison, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System; George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan & Hospitals, Mark Neaman, president and CEO of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare; Richard Hastings, president and CEO of St. Luke’s Health System; Judith Pelham, former president and CEO of Trinity Health; Leonard Schaeffer, chairman and CEO of WellPoint Health Networks; George Vecchione, president and CEO of Lifespan; and Pete Velez, executive director of Elmhurst Hospital Center and senior vice president of Queens Healthcare Network.

Dr. Steele will be honored at an awards banquet on Tuesday, June 6 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, during National Health IT Week, and profiled in a supplement to the June 5, 2006 issue of Modern Healthcare.

Steele joined Geisinger from the University of Chicago where he served as the Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs, and Richard T. Crane Professor in the Department of Surgery.  Previously, he was the William V. McDermott Professor of Surgery, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Deaconess Professional Practice Group at the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston.
 
Recognized internationally for his research into the cause and treatment of primary and metastatic colorectal cancer and surgical interventions, Steele is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a past chairman of the American Board of Surgery.  He also serves on the editorial boards of numerous prominent medical journals. A prolific writer, he is the author or co-author of more than 450 scientific and professional articles.  Steele also serves on the U.S. Department of Health’s National Advisory Committee on Rural Health.

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