CIO Profiles: Thomas A. Bres Of Sparrow Health System

Download the entire Mar. 7, 2011 issue of InformationWeek, distributed in an all-digital format as part of our Green Initiative
(Registration required.)
We will plant a tree for each of the first 5,000 downloads.

Career Track

How long at current company: Two years

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: There's nothing quite like knowing you've enabled a physician or nurse to improve someone's health, or simply made someone's hospital stay more comfortable. I'll use the story of a recent cancer patient as an example. She was going to miss her son's high school graduation because of her chemotherapy. We brought in some videoconferencing equipment so she could view the graduation from her hospital room. Bringing the family together that day might be my proudest moment.

On The Job

IT budget: $67 million

Size of IT team: Around 160

Top initiatives:

Vision

Advice for future CIOs: Get to know the culture of your own organization and the strengths and weaknesses of that culture. Often, new execs will quickly reorganize a department or change strategy as a vehicle to achieve success. The reality is that culture more often determines how employees execute rather than who they report to on an org chart. If you build a culture that reflects your priorities, you'll be well positioned for success.

The next big thing for my industry: A big challenge for healthcare providers will be collaboration. Reaping the benefits of electronic health records depends on bringing people together across multiple disparate entities in collaboration to deliver the best care. Finding new ways to do this will be critical to the industry's success.

The government's top tech priority should be ... to continue achieving the pace of innovation we've experienced in recent years, the federal government should foster an environment where small businesses can thrive.

Personal

Colleges/degrees: Albion College, BA in economics

Leisure activities: Golf and coaching my kids' sports teams

Biggest business-related pet peeve: When people meet instead of act

Smartphone of choice: Droid

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... a public servant of some sort--I love the state of Michigan and want to do everything I can to facilitate our economic recovery

Ranked No. 22 in the 2010