Beleaguered Kaiser Hires New CIO

Remember the Kaiser Permanente scandal from last fall? You know, the one in which the then CIO Cliff Dodd abruptly left the company after a Kaiser employee circulated an e-mail damning the HMO’s $3 billion investment in an electronic health records system and “other inefficient and ineffective information technology projects”? Well, Kaiser appointed a new CIO yesterday. His name is Philip Fasano. He’s 48. He most recently served as the CEO of consulting company and previously served as CIO for several financial services companies. And he replaces Bruce Turkstra, who was named interim CIO after Dodd left. The L.A. Times has an article in today’s edition about Kaiser’s new CIO and its troubled electronic health records initiative.

The blog HIStalk has some juicy gossip about Kaiser’s new hire. One HIStalk reader alleges that Turkstra was passed up for the official CIO post after being promised the job. Log on to HIStalk and scroll waaay down or do a search for Kaiser to read more.

In other healthcare industry news, Cigna HealthCare also hired a new CIO. Juan Conde was tapped for the newly created position. He is also a member of Cigna Healthcare’s senior management team. Conde reports to Scott Storrer, Cigna Corp.’s EVP of enterprise service and information technology. Like Fasano, Conde also hails from the financial services industry. He most recently served as SVP and CIO of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in New York. Is this a new trend in healthcare? Does the industry have so much trouble managing its costs that it can only succeed if it brings in IT executives from banks and investment firms? 

Dave Quane, the CIO of Nortel‘s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, was given the added responsibility of serving as managing director of Nortel Ireland yesterday. In his expanded role, Quane will be responsible for the development of Nortel’s research and development center in Galway, which is currently undergoing a major reconfiguration. Quane has held the EMEA CIO post since 2005 and has worked for Nortel for 20 years.

California’s city of Sunnyvale named Cuong Duc Nguyen as its new director of IT. He replaces Shawn Hernandez, who is retiring from the position. Nguyen moves into his new role on March 5, 2007. He has worked for the Golden State for 28 years, most recently as CIO of Santa Cruz County.