The Associate Chief Health Informatics Officer (ACHIO) is a senior clinical informatics leader who serves as a strategic partner and integrator across Clinical Operations leadership, Information Services, and enterprise transformation efforts. They report directly to the Chief Health Informatics Officer (CHIO). This role is responsible for helping patient-facing care teams realize the value of clinical information systems, digital health, virtual health, analytics, artificial intelligence, and human-centered design to improve patient outcomes, patient experience, safety, quality of care, operational efficiency, access, and clinician well-being.
ECU Health has a vision to become the national model for rural health and wellness and recognizes that achieving this goal requires meaningful redesign rather than stepwise evolution. Executive Leadership has committed to a Strategic Growth Portfolio to advance this work. The ACHIO will play a key role in this portfolio by translating enterprise and clinical priorities into practical, measurable initiatives that reimagine care delivery, strengthen the clinician-patient relationship, and improve the experience of patients and patient-facing care teams.
This role requires prior experience in both strategic planning and operational execution in the clinical transformation, digital health, and/or virtual health space. Approximately 80% of this role is dedicated to strategic partnerships within one or more designated areas of focus. These may include service lines, ECU Health's regional entities, CDI/revenue cycle, perioperative services, emergency medicine, and population health.
In this capacity, the ACHIO serves as a trusted strategic advisor to executive, physician, nursing, and operational leaders, helping align quality, experience, finance, and informatics priorities with organizational goals. Guided by the Quintuple Aim, the ACHIO will use a care redesign approach to center much of this work on improving outcomes, experience, equity, efficiency, and care team well-being. Working in partnership with Clinical Operations leadership and patient-facing care teams, Medical Informatics Directors (MIDs), quality leaders, and Information Systems teams, the ACHIO supports the identification, prioritization, execution, adoption, and ongoing optimization of informatics-enabled initiatives.
This responsibility extends beyond project implementation to include product ownership and value realization, ensuring that both new and previously deployed solutions continue to advance quality, safety, operational performance, care team experience, and strategic objectives. The ACHIO provides a critical connection between strategic governance and operational execution, fostering alignment among leadership, governance, and enterprise informatics priorities.
As a Clinical Informatics professional, the ACHIO applies knowledge of patient care, informatics concepts, methods, and tools to assess the information and knowledge needs of healthcare professionals and patients; evaluate and refine clinical processes; develop and optimize clinical decision support; and support the procurement, customization, implementation, management, evaluation, and continuous improvement of clinical information systems.
The role also supports ECU Health's use of informatics, digital health, virtual health, data science, analytics, and applied innovation to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, access, equity, and value of existing programs and new business opportunities. The remaining approximately 20% of the role will be spent in clinical practice. ECU Health values ACHIOs continuing to actively practice so they remain connected to the realities of patient care, clinical workflows, and care team experience, while bringing firsthand clinical insight to informatics strategy, technology adoption, and care delivery transformation.
Continuing clinical practice also helps preserve clinical credibility, strengthen trust with frontline clinicians, and ensure informatics-enabled transformation reflects real-world care delivery. Minimum Requirements Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree. Current, active, unrestricted license to practice medicine in North Carolina.
Board certified physician. Board certification in Clinical Informatics or additional formal training in clinical informatics strongly preferred. Eight to ten (8-10) years of experience in the healthcare field, including previous responsibility focused on clinical informatics, digital health, virtual health, transformation, analytics, and/or operational improvement within health agencies or organizations.
Five (5) years of clinical practice leveraging an EHR. Prior experience in both strategic planning and operational execution in clinical transformation, digital health, virtual health, or related care delivery innovation. Expert knowledge, insight, and ability to successfully anticipate and respond to trends, key initiatives, and programs in the evolving healthcare informatics and digital transformation field.
Ability to lead organizational change by focusing on driving value, pursuing innovation, overcoming resistance, and being a catalyst for effective change. Excellent strategic planning skills and effectiveness in leading multidisciplinary teams in the execution of strategic initiatives. Ability to translate practical experiences and realities of medical practice into opportunity and vision for the future.
Strategic and critical thinking skillset with the ability to handle multiple priorities. Excellent speaking and writing communication skills and demonstrated expertise in presenting and discussing clinical, operational, scientific, and transformation information with a broad set of stakeholders and audiences. Experience leading cross-functional work in complex, matrixed environments and influencing across clinical, operational, information technology, education, and executive stakeholder groups.
MBA, MHA, MS, MMM, or other advanced degree relevant to transformation, innovation, operations, digital health, virtual health, or care delivery redesign. Experience with agile, adaptive, product management, innovation, entrepreneurial, or transformation delivery methods. Experience launching, co-directing, or scaling a transformation, digital health, virtual health, innovation, or clinical informatics program.
Experience with Epic optimization, digital health implementation, virtual health operations, advanced analytics, or AI-enabled clinical transformation. Experience partnering with strategy, innovation, transformation delivery, education, operations, and clinical governance teams. Leadership Competencies: Mission-driven leader committed to improving access, equity, outcomes, and experience for the communities ECU Health serves.
Strategic thinker who can translate vision into actionable plans, measurable outcomes, and sustainable operations. Effective change agent able to drive cultural transformation across a large, diverse, matrixed organization. Collaborative leader who builds trust with clinical leaders, frontline care teams, educators, operational partners, patients, and technology teams.
Entrepreneurial and adaptive mindset with the discipline to evaluate, measure, refine, and scale what works. Skilled mentor and coach for emerging clinical informatics, transformation delivery, and education professionals. Ability to communicate complex transformation strategies and data in practical, actionable terms relatable to all levels of the organization.
ECU Health About ECU Health ECU Health is a mission-driven, 1,708-bed academic health care system serving more than 1.4 million people in 29 eastern North Carolina counties. The not-for-profit system is comprised of 13,000 team members, nine hospitals and a physician group that encompasses over 1,100 academic and community providers practicing in over 180 primary and specialty clinics located in more than 130 locations.
The flagship ECU Health Medical Center, a Level I Trauma Center, and ECU Health Maynard Children’s Hospital serve as the primary teaching hospitals for the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. ECU Health and the Brody School of Medicine share a combined academic mission to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina through patient care, education and research. General Statement It is the goal of ECU Health and its entities to employ the most qualified individual who best matches the requirements for the vacant position.
Offers of employment are subject to successful completion of all pre-employment screenings, which may include an occupational health screening, criminal record check, education, reference, and licensure verification. We value diversity and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Decisions of employment are made based on business needs, job requirements and applicant’s qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, genetic information and testing, family and medical leave, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or any other status protected by law.
We prohibit retaliation against individuals who bring forth any complaint, orally or in writing, to the employer, or against any individuals who assist or participate in the investigation of any complaint.
Not Applicable