The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has selected MEDITECH Vice Chairman and longtime CEO Howard Messing as the recipient of this year’s distinguished CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award. This recognition is a testament to Messing’s unwavering commitment to the EHR industry and his lasting impact on healthcare.
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“I’m deeply honored to receive this recognition from CHIME,” states Messing. “It’s a privilege to be part of an industry that plays a pivotal role in the intersection of technology and healthcare. I’m immensely proud of the systems MEDITECH has crafted and the transformative impact they’ve had on patient care.”
During his impressive 50-year career, Messing has spearheaded many technological innovations for the healthcare market — from mobile device access to cloud computing. As a computer programmer, he was one of the first developers of an electronic order entry system — an important breakthrough for healthcare in the early 1980s. Even then, he recognized the impact that IT could have on medical processes, as well as on the people giving and receiving care. And as MEDITECH’s longtime President & CEO, Messing was always looking ahead to the next evolution in healthcare, exploring new ways to help make processes safer and more efficient.
“Howard’s dedication and passion for advancing healthcare through electronic health records have been unparalleled over his nearly 50-year career at MEDITECH,” says CHIME President and CEO Russ Branzell. “His commitment to innovation, customer relationships, and the overarching goal of improving patient care has left an indelible mark on the industry. The CHIME Foundation is proud to honor him with the Industry Leader Award, recognizing his pivotal role as one of the original founders of the EHR industry.”
One of the hallmarks of Messing’s leadership has been the great pride he takes in working directly with clinicians — from the earliest software design stages through to its final implementation phases. Through their collaborations, he developed a keen understanding of how healthcare IT impacted the daily lives of its users — which, in turn, led to a redesign of MEDITECH’s system around user-friendly mobile technologies. The new platform, MEDITECH Expanse, represented Messing’s innovative vision for the modern EHR: one that is cloud-based, web-native, mobile, and easily personalized to provider workflow. It would also be patient-centered, with MEDITECH developing a new Ambulatory solution from the ground up to create a single integrated record across all care settings.
With Messing’s guidance, MEDITECH became one of the founding members of the HL7 FHIR effort to improve interoperability — reflecting his belief that all healthcare technology vendors should work together to improve data exchange and accessibility. In 2015, he joined a coalition of industry partners from the vendor and association communities to support CHIME’s National Patient ID Challenge.
Messing has always taken a particular interest in supporting underserved communities worldwide. MEDITECH’s Laboratory solution has long been used as an integral tool for testing and curbing the spread of HIV across Africa. Today, the entire nation of Botswana uses MEDITECH to connect care from their urban center to their furthest remote healthcare posts. Most recently, Messing facilitated a new partnership with The Aga Khan University to use the EHR to advance education, culture, and overall quality of life for their communities.
As a business leader, Messing has promoted fiscally responsible decision-making and long-term sustainability. As he saw the cost of healthcare rise exponentially in recent years, he committed to helping all organizations — large and small, urban and rural — gain access to high-quality, innovative, and affordable EHR technology. Messing believes all healthcare technology vendors have a shared responsibility to help keep costs down and drive discussion around value and sustainability. This philosophy was also reflected in MEDITECH’s cloud-based subscription model approach, which would help level the playing field for many rural and community organizations that desired to remain independent.
Messing’s five decades of experience shaping the EHR industry and his dedication to innovation have paved the way for many of the healthcare tech advancements we benefit from today. The CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award was presented to Messing on Friday, November 10, at the CHIME Fall Forum in Phoenix, AZ, to recognize these achievements.
About MEDITECH
MEDITECH empowers healthcare organizations everywhere to expand their vision of what’s possible with Expanse, the world’s most intuitive and interoperable EHR. Expanse lays the foundation for the next digital era, enabling care across delivery settings with cloud-based systems that drive better outcomes and provide mobile, personalized solutions to improve efficiency for an overburdened workforce. Visit ehr.meditech.com, and follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Threads.
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