The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has named Shafiq Rab, MD, its 2015 Innovator of the Year. 

Rab, vice president and CIO of Hackensack University Medical Center (HackensackUMC), has led the organization's efforts to adopt technology solutions that help clinicians and patients access information that helps them make better decisions and lower costs. HackensackUMC is one of the first health systems in the nation to link patient-generated data from personal fitness devices and mobile apps to its EMR, enabling clinicians to have a more complete view of a patient's history, according to CHIME.

HackensackUMC also teamed with Infor to develop and implement open, vendor-neutral standards as part of the Argonaut Project. Launched in 2014, the Argonaut Project is a national effort geared around speeding up adoption of HL7's standards framework, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).

"I am humbled and honored by this honor," Rab said. "It is a great recognition of the accomplishments of my team at Hackensack University Medical Center, as well as our partnership with outside partners and vendors. Our collective actions have significantly improved access to health data by the patient, while at the same time improving patient satisfaction."

"Achieving interoperability is one of the industry's biggest challenges and priorities," said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. "Through Shafiq's efforts, we are seeing how greater connectivity between providers and patients can create more efficient and effective care delivery."

"We worked with several great partners to develop our universal imaging strategy to make images available to both patients and clinicians at clinically relevant and meaningful moments in context of the problem, disease or encounter during the entire life of that patient," Rab said. "The information needs to be easily accessible, presented in a meaningful way and understandable."

Rab accepted the award at the CHIME15 Fall CIO Forum.