First CNIO and New CMIO to Lead Integration of Technology and Clinical Care

Rosemary Ventura, DNP, RN-BC, has been named UR Medicine’s first Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO), effective June 17, and URMC’s Gregg Nicandri, M.D., associate professor of Orthopaedics, will take on the role of chief medical information officer (CMIO) effective July 1.

The two seasoned clinicians will lead strategic and tactical initiatives impacting clinical systems across the enterprise. Both have a passion and experience with technology and informatics, but their ability to understand the needs of clinicians will put them in the unique position to guide UR Medicine into the future.

Ventura comes from New York-Presbyterian where she served as director of Nursing Informatics. "Dr. Ventura has extensive informatics and clinical experience, and when you combine these, you have someone who's extremely valuable.She can speak the languages of the technology world and the clinical world." says Karen K. Davis, PhD, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, chief nursing executive for UR Medicine.

“Dr. Nicandri is a respected faculty physician who knows the day-to-day responsibilities our providers shoulder and sees first-hand how technology and the electronic health record system can influence their experiences,” said Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Mike Apostolakos, M.D. “His personal interest in using technology to develop solutions that both improve care and the user experience provides a foundation for his role as a champion and leader for implementing, advancing and optimizing our clinical technology systems.”

Nicandri and Ventura will both report to Chief Information Officer Thomas Barnett. Nicandri will also report to Apostolakos while Ventura will jointly report to Davis. This reporting structure will ensure that they are firmly rooted in both clinical practice and technology decisions.

The CNIO and CMIO will be an integral part of our maturing IT governance processes, particularly in the Clinical Advisory Council where requests for new solutions are evaluated and prioritized to meet the needs of UR Medicine and affiliates. Both will work together to influence IT strategy for their respective clinical colleagues, and ISD’s new relationship with nursing practice will ensure our decision making is inclusive and comprehensive.

Nicandri will take over CMIO responsibilities from Shawn Newlands, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., who’s served as URMC’s interim CMIO for the past nine months. In that time, Newlands and the numerous teams supporting our providers who use eRecord, delivered dozens of improvements, offered opportunities to increase skills and efficiency, matured methods of sharing information about eRecord changes, and facilitated the feedback process that drives optimization efforts. Read more about their work here.

Ventura and Nicandri will help establish a vision for information systems and act as a liaison between ISD and clinical operations to communicate needs, ongoing initiatives and improvements throughout the enterprise. They’ll work with URMC’s assistant CMIOs, Justin Mazzillo, M.D., assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, and Heather Busick, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, plus a team of Clinical Informaticists to evaluate and prioritize optimizations for clinical information systems.

As UR Medicine continues to grow and technology advances in the blink of an eye, we need leaders who understand the needs of clinicians and how to leverage the power of our EHR to ensure we are delivering cutting-edge care for our patients.