The Once And Future CIO: How The Role Is Changing

The role of the CIO is on the brink of a big change. When Synnott and Gruber conceptualized the chief information officer (CIO) in the 1980s, they envisioned a multivector leader, equal to the CEO and CFO. This new breed of executive would craft savvy strategies and achieve “business objectives through the innovative use of technology.” Over the years, this shiny vision lost much of its luster. CIOs are now often pigeonholed as operations marshals who manage IT support, run projects and obsess over security threats.

Using the healthcare sector as a barometer, it is clear that those traditionally tagged with IT management and implementation are stepping out of the tedious “necessary expenditure” column and reclaiming a much more strategic position.

Over the past couple of years, healthcare CIOs and CISOs have been forced to quickly grapple with pandemic turmoil amid massive paradigm shifts. There’s no way to understate the scope of these business challenges as they catapulted the role wildly between the tactical realm of “how to fix the laptops for remote work” and the leadership realm of “how to drive the business transformation” virtually overnight.