Newark, NJ (PRWEB) August 01, 2014
Tomas Gregorio EMBA‘09, a veteran health care executive experienced in building IT networks for regional hospitals, has been appointed Senior Executive Director of Healthcare Systems Innovation at the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), an NJIT corporation.
NJII was created earlier this year to spur innovation and growth in a range of economic sectors by leveraging the resources of industry, government, and higher education. Health care delivery is a principal focus to which NJIT brings longstanding technical and systems-building expertise and a track record of success in New Jersey and the New York metro region.
Gregorio has been instrumental to these efforts, working with the university’s research and development arm to establish and build organizations such as the New Jersey Health Information Technology Extension Center (NJ-HITEC), a non-profit, self-sustaining division within NJII that is working with more than 8,000 Garden State providers to collect, digest, use, and share their electronically stored patient data. NJ-HITEC was originally funded by the federal government.
He will oversee the NJII Healthcare Systems i-Lab, one of five innovation labs created to work with industry partners.
“I am so happy to have Tom as part of the NJII leadership team. He’s a proven innovator in the healthcare space and has been a valuable partner of NJIT’s since the university began developing programs to guide health care organizations in adopting electronic health record systems and medical information exchanges,” said Donald Sebastian, the president of NJII. “We look forward to his energy and vision shaping the integration and growth of our Healthcare Systems i-Lab.”
Gregorio also advised NJIT on the construction of the Highlander Health Data Network, a network comprised of six hospitals that share demographic and clinical data in order to reduce duplicative tests, better understand the clinical needs of the population they serve, and keep tabs on such health trends as spikes in the incidence of diabetes, metal health disorders, and heart disease.
“The healthcare delivery system is in the midst of transformational change and NJII has an important role to play in driving critical innovations. Coming back to NJIT to work on these issues at our newly created institute is truly a dream come true,” says Gregorio, who earned his EMBA in technology management from NJIT and has taught master’s level hospital systems management courses at the university as an adjunct professor.
Gregorio previously served as senior vice president and chief operating officer for HealthEC, LLC, a New Jersey-based company that provides technology to accountable care organizations (ACOs) and systems-integration services to healthcare information exchanges. He has also held positions as the president and chief executive officer of Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, and before that, as a vice president and chief information officer for Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
Gregorio will be working with health care systems, providers, and insurers to optimize their information systems and streamline delivery, as well as to improve patients’ experience by giving them electronic access to their medical records, their healthcare history, their ability to receive medication and appointment reminders as well as to track tests and lab results. He will also work to propose new care models that adapt technologies to human behavior and vice versa, boosting productivity with strategic IT investment.
“The NJII Healthcare Systems i-Lab is prepared to take on the challenge of containing rising healthcare costs while improving access and quality of care,” said Sebastian. “Technology has much to offer but only when applied to systems- level solutions that create a benefit for all the stakeholders. At this point there is no other forum where hospitals, clinicians, labs, pharmacies, insurers, public health agencies and others can come together to rethink the way we deliver healthcare services to achieve efficiencies without sacrificing quality.”
The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) is an NJIT corporation that applies the intellectual and technological resources of the state’s science and technology university to challenges identified by industry partners. Through its Innovation Labs (iLabs) , NJII brings NJIT expertise to key economic sectors, including healthcare delivery systems, bio-pharmaceutical production, civil infrastructure, defense and homeland security, and financial services.