Two of the three top newsmakers Healthcare IT News readers selected for 2009 are the same two they selected at the end of 2008.

The Healthcare IT News survey again asked readers to pick the people they thought had the most impact on healthcare information technology over the course of the year. The online poll collected more than 500 votes.

Readers again selected President Barack Obama as top leader in the policy category and C. Martin Harris, MD, as top newsmaker in the provider category. This year, Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic Systems,  ousted Allscripts founder and CEO Glen Tullman, who garnered the most votes in 2008.

Policy Makers

President Obama received 48 percent of the vote, leaving small percentages divided among eight other selections. David Blumenthal, MD, the nation’s healthcare IT coordinator, received 19 percent, and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) gathered 9 percent, rounding out the top three in this category.

“He’s the man,” commented Michael J. Sauk, CIO at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in casting his vote for Obama.

“He’s the single greatest force behind the reform movement, which in turn will do more to drive IT change than any other single factor,” another reader said.

“I feel the president made a statement about information being at the heart ... no pun intended ... of providing the best health care solution for a patient. I feel and I am sure that there is some study out there that supports that the more accurate information the care giver has regarding a patient, the better care the patient will receive,” said Mary Kathleen Sierra, RHIA director and privacy officer at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac, Ill.

For some, the vote they cast for Obama was not a show of support.

“He’s a rock star president,” one respondent said. “Whatever whim happens to occur to him usually meets with fevered endorsement regardless of its veracity.”

“He will have to take the blame or praise,” said Edward A Hess, MD, of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Fontana, Calif.  “Not a positive impact, but a negative impact,” another voter said.

Providers

C. Martin Harris, CIO of the Cleveland Clinic, received 25 percent of the votes cast in a field of eight choices. Marc Probst, CIO of Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, garnered 23 percent, with the rest of the votes spread among six other candidates.

Both the Cleveland Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare were held up by President Obama as shining examples of what healthcare IT can do to boost patient care and reduce waste as Obama traveled the country to stump for healthcare reform over the past year. Harris sits on the federal government’s Health IT Standards Committee. Probst is a member of the government’s Health IT Policy Committee. Both panels serve an advisory role.

“The Cleveland Clinic has set the standard for innovative tech solutions,” said Janet E. Gardner, a nurse at Texas Health Resources.

“Cleveland Clinic continues to drive innovation in every aspect of patient care, including technology,” said James Price of Highpoint, N.C.

“After reading the New York Times article (Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009) regarding Dr. Brent James and his team at Intermountain Healthcare, for me, it is hands down Marc Probst. Data-driven changes and outcomes will change our healthcare for the better,” said Patricia Putignano, a consultant.

“The voice for rural is a really important one and Probst helped highlight this issue,” said Andie Martinez.

 “There are scores of such individuals across the country so it is hard to just pick one ... not fair,” concluded one reader, who cast his vote for Joseph Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health, part of Partners HealthCare in Boston. Maryalice Jordan-Marsh, of the University of Southern California, credited Kvedar with “generous sharing of ideas, creative new programs, extensive publications.”

Ron Paulus, CIO of the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, was on the list, too, garnering 14 percent of the vote. One reader called Geisinger “the David among the Goliaths. The little known healthcare company that with the right leadership set out to do the right thing for their patients and their business.”

Vendors

Judith Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic Systems in Verona, Wis., received 35 percent of the vote for the top newsmaker in the vendor category, though Faulkner makes little news, keeps a low profile and never issues media releases about Epic’s contract wins as most other vendors do. Faukner was selected from a list of six that consisted of last year’s winner, Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts; along with Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric; Neal Patterson, CEO of Cerner; Girish Navani, CEO of eClinicalWorks; and Peter Neupert, vice president of Microsoft’s Health Solution Group.

Faulkner was in the news this year when she was named to the federal Health IT Policy Committee. Epic is marking its 30th anniversary this year.

“Judy’s leadership has been amazing on these issues,” said Michael J. Sauk, CIO of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics.

“We are moving to Epic and feel that the vendor provides an excellent model for movement from one EHR to another,” said another reader.

“The growth of her company and her ability to ‘edge out’ Cerner in so many of the facilities looking for IT partners has been phenomenal,” said Lewis Hughes, a nurse  at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo.