VITL Names New President and CEO

Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc (VITL), the nonprofit organization that is expanding the use of HIT in Vermont to improve the quality and value of the state’s healthcare system, has named David Cochran, MD, of Norwell, Mass., as its president and CEO.

Cochran is the former senior vice president for strategic development at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. In that position, he led the company’s business planning and strategy development processes. From 1993 to 2000, Cochran was the associate medical director for clinical practice systems at Harvard Pilgrim, where he led the effort to select and implement a new clinical information system and electronic medical record.  

At Harvard Pilgrim, Cochran also led physician teams in the development and implementation of clinical guidelines, which included automating one of the first health screening guidelines in a health plan. He was directly responsible for the consumer health and provider support components of Harvard Pilgrim’s Internet strategy. From 1986 to 1993, he served as the director of several health centers in the health plan’s Boston-area network, providing 500,000 patient visits a year.

As VITL’s president and CEO, Cochran will lead efforts to help Vermont’s physician practices adopt and implement electronic health records systems and exchange clinical data on a secure health information exchange network. VITL also provides the information technology infrastructure for the Vermont Department of Health’s Blueprint for Health initiative.

Source: Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc