News Briefs – Cha Names Brian Herrick, MD, Chief Information Officer

 Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), an academic community health system serving Cambridge, Somerville and Boston’s metro-north region, has named Brian Herrick, MD, as its new chief information officer. Dr. Herrick, who has served in various IT leadership roles at CHA since 2010, has more than 15 years of management experience in the health care delivery and IT environments.

Dr. Herrick most recently served as CHA’s chief medical information officer, a position he has held since 2012. As the senior physician responsible for overseeing the organization’s IT collaboration with patients, clinicians, operations, quality, compliance and researchers, he has played an essential part in improving patient quality and provider satisfaction. He has led CHA’s optimization and implementation of clinical information systems to ensure they support patient care, quality measure reporting and operational processes.

His accomplishments include launching a number of new features in CHA’s MyChart patient portal, which gives patients active in the system better control to manage their health, and guiding CHA through the many stages of Meaningful Use incentive programs. Dr. Herrick has also worked with regional healthcare leaders to create a standard in CHA’s electronic medical record to promote inter-organizational information exchange to benefit patient care.

 â€œAs a family medicine physician and informatics leader, Dr. Herrick has a keen understanding of CHA’s operational, clinical and technical needs,” said CHA CEO Patrick Wardell. “He will provide compassionate and innovative leadership in support of our mission to improve the health of our communities.”  

Dr. Herrick completed his medical degree at Dartmouth Medical School, family medicine residency at the University of Rochester, a fellowship in faculty development at the University of California at San Francisco and a certificate in biomedical informatics from Oregon Health and Science University. He completed his board certification in clinical informatics in 2017.

CHA is an academic community health system committed to providing high-quality care in Cambridge, Somerville and Boston’s metro-north communities. CHA has expertise in primary care, specialty care and mental health/substance use services, as well as caring for diverse and complex populations. It includes three hospital campuses, a network of primary care and specialty practices and the Cambridge Public Health Dept. CHA patients have seamless access to advanced care through the system’s affiliation with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.