The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) (@CIOCHIME) Opioid Task Force launched a fundraising campaign to support the newly created CHIME Opioid Health IT Action Center, a web-based repository for healthcare organizations seeking resources and knowledge on the opioid crisis. The drive, which has already raised $130,000 in commitments, was announced at the 2018 CHIME Fall CIO Forum in San Diego.
“Rare is the person whose life has not been impacted by the opioid crisis,” said Bruce Cerullo, the Opioid Task Force co-chair and CEO of Nordic. “As leaders in health IT, we have real solutions and knowledge available to curb this terrible tide of human loss and suffering. We need everyone’s help to achieve our goals. Whether you are a CHIME member, a Foundation partner, a non-CHIME healthcare enterprise, or a private citizen; we ask you to consider making a donation.”
The CHIME Opioid Task Force was launched in early 2018 to leverage the knowledge and expertise of the CHIME membership to find and share IT-based solutions that address the opioid crisis. The catalyst for its formation was the accidental opioid-related death of Tim Kopetsky, the son of CHIME founding member Ed Kopetsky, CIO of Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital. Ed Kopetsky is co-chair of the task force and co-chair of the fundraising campaign.
To date the task force and CHIME have hosted three free and open webinars on leading practices and assembled a subcommittee to write a playbook for CIOs. In addition, CHIME’s public policy team and the CHIME Public Policy Steering Committee have made the opioid epidemic a priority topic and are working with federal agencies and policy makers to promote opioid initiatives and legislation that members support.
The Opioid IT Action Center is designed to provide healthcare organizations with the information they need to implement systems and practices that will positively impact the communities they serve. Tax-deductible donations to support the center can be made here.
About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs), chief medical information officers (CMIOs), chief nursing information officers (CNIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 2,800 members in 51 countries and over 150 healthcare IT business partners and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve.