Paul was a panelist at this lively and important health informatics event. To report on the conference and the health informatics sector in general, we posed the following list of questions to Paul, to be answered in a series of blog entries over the coming two weeks.  The intent is to communicate a vision to add to the conversation going on about this critical sector.  We welcome your comments as well.

Questions:

Paul, can you answer the following questions based on the discussions and presentations at the June 19, 2006 Gardiner Roberts LLP conference on Health Informatics, which you attended?

1.       There are some givens, for example we know that:

·         “The health system” is a misnomer—there are really islands of automation and function;   the system as a whole is quite dysfunctional.

·         Strong project management skills are missing in the sector—there are too many inexperienced people in the industry (“kids buying servers as though they were Xboxes”).

·         There is a real lack of trained professionals in the field.

·     There is a supernal structure that does not lead to anything. Are those huge structural elements being invested at the expense of people and skills?

·         Vendors do not play together; it is not in their interest.

·         $10 – $15 billion has to be spent on health informatics in Ontario, According to Dominic Covvey.

·         Organizations are not investing in people with soft skills.

These ideas point to a lack of coherent strategy. What strategic vision could you start to sketch out to deal with these related issues? What project management capabilities would be required for an investment of that magnitude and complexity?

2.     You were the first CIO of Canada.  If you were offered a similar portfolio for the health care sector in Ontario, would you accept the job? Why, or why not? What would your first 100 days look like, and what could be accomplished six months, one year and three years into the job?  What shocks would you send through the system? How would you manage the multiple stakeholder groups that would be involved—how would you build a picture of what they would get?

 3.     Is the EHR the Holy Grail?  How would you move the quest for it forward?  Are there other areas to concentrate on now?

 4.     What are the real business drivers for health informatics, when there have been no demonstrated benefits?

 5.     How can a rigorous set of SLAs or benefits related to technology, resources, change management, and other aspects of the whole system be related to patient outcome?

6.     Could you sketch out the project management skills that hospital-based HI professionals should be bringing to their work?  What would the soft and hard skills be?  Would you include clinical skills, industrial and management engineering?

7.     How would you foster leadership from clinicians, CEOs, support staff and administration staff, integrating their efforts to achieve critical results?

8.   How are we going to relate to technology optimists or pessimists in health care?

9. There is not a cohesive health informatics strategy for the Province of Ontario. How might one come about?

Paul Rummell will be part of an executive panel at an Executive Leaders’ Breakfast Round-Table on Health Informatics, June 19th, 2006, 7:30 - 10:00 a.m., at The Toronto Board of Trade, Downtown Centre.

See the enclosed brochure.

Paul is working with several major organizations as an Advisor to help them build their business development capabilities, and to strengthen their sales and marketing operations.  In addition, he is providing advice on critical large projects, procurement opportunities and other issues.  Paul is also, serving as an independent Director for several corporate Boards.

As the first Chief Information Officer for the Government of Canada, Paul established a new strategic direction for information technology in government, managing a budget of $4 billion per year and a professional staff of 16,000.  During his term as Federal CIO, Paul developed a strategic technology implementation plan for Canada, recruited 1,000 information system professionals, managed IT investments and operations, and created information policies, while achieving economies in the IT and IM infrastructure and operations across the government.

Paul has substantial experience with ERP/CRM, including 16 SAP installations and 28 PeopleSoft installations.  In addition, he has experience with Siebel and Pivotal CRM systems and has extensive knowledge of and experience in e-business, internet/intranet, networking, telecommunications and all underlying technologies.

Paul was the Director of Information Systems for Vancouver General Hospital, a leading North American health care centre and the second largest hospital in Canada.

Paul was President of the Technology Subsidiary and CIO of one of the top Global Performance Management firms.  He revitalized the business, putting together a new management team, sales force and administrative staff, prepared business plans and secured financing.

As a Senior Partner of KPMG Consulting Canada, Paul was responsible for establishing the Financial Services Enabling Technologies Practice for KPMG Canada.  He recruited a focused financial services team, secured and delivered consulting assignments to major clients, and completed projects using electronic payments and other leading edge technologies.

Paul was a Partner/Practice Director – Pacific Region for Ernst & Young.  He restructured and focused the IT consulting practice on major corporate, institutional and entrepreneurial clients including financial institutions, utilities, government and health care.  He managed the deployment of systems and business process improvement methodology and achieved record profit levels for the practice.

As a Partner for KPMG Peat Marwick, Paul was responsible for the Vancouver Technical Services Practices.  He secured and managed a major series of consulting engagements and led the practice in marketing, profitability, services and product planning.

Paul Rummell is one of the leading IT professionals in North America. He is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States and is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  Paul has over 30 years experience as an IT strategist, innovator and project manager in the financial services, e-government and health care sectors.  He is the former Chief Information Officer for the Government of Canada and has testified before the United States Congress on establishing a federal CIO.

Paul is a highly skilled business leader with a proven track record of managing all phases of complex IT initiatives from conceptualization through implementation, while delivering the best return on investment.  He has successfully managed many $100 million plus projects, and has been responsible for an IT and e-business budget of $4 billion.  Having worked extensively on a global scale, Paul understands the international and technology issues of global operations and installations.

Paul has extensive experience in applied information technologies in major organizations. He has had a broad exposure to technology strategy, governance and management, program / project management, training, quality assurance, testing, security, hardware, software and network technologies. He is proven in applying new technologies and managing a wide variety of complex business and systems environments. 

He gets results and achieves high performance.

See Paul's formal resume and bio for more detail.

·        Developing strategic marketing approaches to secure major projects and contracts

·        Establishing effective technology functions at the executive level

·        Transforming organizations onto new directions

·        Providing strategic management

·        Providing governance to a technology company

·        Completing investment due diligence

·        Delivering electronic commerce and payments processing

·        Reviewing critical infrastructure and management

·        Evaluation, design and implementation of telecommunications and networks

·        Management of very large programs / projects

·        Management of project risks

·        Planning for contingencies

·        Development of security architectures

·        Planning and analysis for business resumption

·        Reductions in cost for the organization

·        An outstanding, innovative business and technology leader with distinguished career in helping world class companies, consulting organizations and governments deliver service excellence and commercial success leveraging technology to influence operational and financial performance.

·        Consistently delivers value in high-profile executive roles, steering enterprise-level strategies, making high-stakes decisions and overcoming complex business challenges.

·        Gets results for his clients to improve sales performance, reduce risk and lower costs.

·        Versatile performer who can lead both technical and line operations teams, who excels as a self-starting senior account executive and who exceeds expectations in internal/external technology and business consulting roles.

·        Uniquely qualified by combination of high-calibre management qualifications, strong business acumen, technical proficiency and proven leadership talents.

·        Expert in global business.

·        A seasoned public speaker and outstanding corporate ambassador.

·        A committed, hard-working and adaptable team contributor and leader recognized for big picture strategy skills and hands-on delivery.

·        Strong interpersonal skills.

·        Quick study.