ANN ARBOR, MI – His team makes him look good, William A. Spooner said last month in acknowledging he had been named CIO of the Year.

Spooner, senior vice president and CIO at Sharp HealthCare in San Diego will receive the 2009 John E. Gall CIO of the Year Award at the annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Atlanta on March 2.

“Bill has been Sharp’s CIO for nearly 15 years, and he has continuously demonstrated innovative IT leadership,” said Mike Murphy, President and CEO of Sharp HealthCare. “Most recently, in addition to overseeing Sharp’s EMR efforts, Bill and his team also successfully integrated a host of IT projects at the new Stephen Birch Healthcare Center at Sharp Memorial Hospital, making it our first paper-light facility.”

The many IT initiatives under Spooner’s direction have contributed significantly to improvements and efficiencies that have helped Sharp realize gains in patient and physician satisfaction, clinical quality and growth in market share, Murphy said.

“I am truly honored to be recognized in the same context as the industry leaders who have received the Gall Award over the past 20 years,” said Spooner. “I am fortunate to work in an organization whose leadership values technology so highly in providing the highest quality patient care and patient service, and to have such a great IT team that makes me look good every day.”

Among the CIOs who have received the Gall award in recent years are Patricia Skarulis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York; George T. Hickman, Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y.: Timothy Zoph, Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; and Eric Yablonka, University of Chicago Medical Center.

The award, co-sponsored by CHIME and HIMSS, recognizes healthcare IT executives who have made significant contributions to their organization and demonstrated innovative leadership through effective use of technology.
It is named for the late John E. Gall Jr., who pioneered implementation of the first fully integrated medical information system in the world at California's El Camino Hospital in the 1960s.

Responsible for information technology and telecommunications across Sharp HealthCare, Spooner oversees a department that manages the system-wide clinical, financial and administrative computer systems. He is currently leading Sharp’s efforts to implement physician order entry, a key component of Sharp’s patient safety initiative and the foundation for its emerging electronic medical record.

Spooner, an active contributor and leader of both the CHIME and HIMSS, served as chairman of the CHIME Board in 2006 and chairman of the CHIME Foundation Board in 2007. He has been a frequent presenter at the HIMSS conference and is active in his local chapter.

He is also a member of the Healthcare IT News Editorial Board.

A fellow CHIME, Spooner is a member of the California Hospital Association Health Informatics and Technology Committee.

Most recently, he has volunteered his time to the CHIME Education Foundation Leadership Circle, a group aimed at raising awareness and funds for the CHIME Education Foundation, which provides scholarships and continuing education funds to future and current CIOs.