posted by Kevin Heubusch
Dec 02, 2009 07:00 am
The AHIMA Board of Directors announced Tuesday that it has selected Alan F. Dowling, PhD, to serve as CEO of the American Health Information Management Association.
Dowling has more than 35 years experience in health informatics, with a broad-based background that includes information systems leadership, hospital and academic experience, and corporate and nonprofit work. He will take office on January 13, 2010.
“Dr. Dowling has a deep understanding of the complexity of issues facing our association, our members, and our industry as a whole,” said AHIMA president Vera Rulon, in a press release. “His experience in the areas of health information and informatics and healthcare delivery systems gives him a keen insight into what will be vital to the next decade of health information management and technology. He is the ideal person for the job ahead.”
“I cannot imagine a more electrifying place to be right now than in the midst of the nation’s actions to harness and manage health information and transform healthcare effectiveness,” Dowling said in the release.
Dowling is president of Global Health Associates, which provides executive and board consultation on information systems and technology transfer and adoption in the US and internationally. Dowling also serves as adjunct professor of information systems at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.
From 2004 to 2008 he was executive director of the Center for Health Innovation for Noblis, a nonprofit science, technology, and strategy organization. Previously he was a senior vice president of health consulting at Covansys and president of health IT company HealthMagic. Dowling also was a partner in the health industry consulting practice of Ernst & Young from 1986 to 2000, and he served for more than 20 years as a health services officer in the US Air Force Reserve.
Dowling also has had a distinguished academic career, teaching at Case Western since 1981 and serving as a lecturer or speaker at many leading institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Penn State, Harvard, Cornell, Boston University, Michigan, Missouri, Tokyo, the American University of Beirut, and Cape Town. He holds a PhD in healthcare management and management information systems from MIT.
Dowling has served on health IT-related committees, task forces, and work groups nationally and internationally. In 2007(08 he served on a work group to define health information terms for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. In the 1990s he served on the Clinton administration’s healthcare reform task force, the Information Management Task Force of the Joint Commission, and the federal National Nursing Minimum Data Set Task Force. He is widely published and a frequent speaker at national and international forums and symposiums.
As the association’s CEO, Dowling will succeed Linda Kloss, who announced her resignation in July 2009.