Christopher Longhurst, M.D., M.S., chief medical information officer for Stanford Children’s Health and a member of Healthcare Informatics’ editorial board, has been appointed chief information officer for UC San Diego Health Sciences. Dr. Longhurst fills the position being vacated with the retirement of Ed Babakanian, who served as CIO for 20 years.
As CIO, Dr. Longhurst will be responsible for all operations and strategic planning for information and communications technology, according to an internal UCSD memo announcing his hire. This includes ensuring that all regulatory guidelines are met for information management, and planning and developing all administrative and clinical information systems related to the operation of the hospital and clinical facilities, including the electronic health records.
Dr. Longhurst will also oversee the creation of a comprehensive information strategy to meet future needs of the health system along with developing and implementing a common set of processes for creating standards, architectures and policies for information technologies across the university and with the UC system. He will work as part of the planning, governance, and oversight process for information technology on campus and within UC Health. Additionally, Dr. Longhurst will be a faculty member in the new Department of Biomedical Informatics.
Dr. Longhurst holds degrees from UC San Diego and UC Davis. At Stanford Children’s Health, he led strategic efforts to improve children’s health and provider workflow using information technology. He also founded and led the clinical informatics fellowship at Stanford.
He is the author and co-author of numerous publications on how technology and data can improve patient care and outcomes and was elected as a fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics, among other distinctions. He is a board-certified pediatrician and clinical informaticist.
UC San Diego Health Sciences encompasses the School of Medicine, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and UC San Diego Health System, including UC San Diego Medical Center, in Hillcrest; and in La Jolla, Thornton Hospital, Moores Cancer Center, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center; and other centers, primary and specialty practices of the UC San Diego Medical Group faculty physicians.
