CHICAGO --- After a comprehensive national search, Rush University Medical Center has named Shafiq Rab, MBBS, MPH, CHCIO, to the post of chief information officer and senior vice president, effective Jan. 9, 2017.
“I am very excited to welcome Shafiq Rab to Rush,” said Michael Dandorph, president of Rush University Medical Center. “His extensive professional experience combined with his unique medical and public health background is a perfect fit with our mission and vision.”
Rab is currently the CIO and senior vice president of information technology at Hackensack University Health Network, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Since 2012, he has used technology to help grow a single 775-bed hospital into the largest health system in New Jersey, with more than 3,500 patient beds. He also introduced innovations and tools including bedside iPads and the Apple Health Kit, to allow patients and families greater access to their medical records and easier communication with their care teams. His work contributed to improved patient outcomes and experience, and operational efficiencies.
Innovator in patient engagement with mobile technology
Rab brought Hackensack University Medical Center to the leading edge of mobile health care technology by developing an app that allows patient access to direct appointment scheduling, test results, prescription information and communication with physicians from any device. His team also developed facial recognition technology to accurately match and identify the appropriate patient to his or her data, as well as new technology allowing patients to connect providers to their medical record regardless of the system that doctor uses.
From 2008 to 2012, Rab was vice president and CIO at Greater Hudson Valley Health System in New York, where he led the system’s successful implementation of electronic medical records software. Prior to his time at Greater Hudson Valley Health System, he was vice president and CIO at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey, and CIO/director of information technology/information security officer at Carrier Clinic, East Mountain Hospital in Belle Mead, New Jersey.
Rab has a Master of Public Health degree from Rutgers University, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from Dow Medical College in Pakistan, where he completed a residency in internal medicine. He also is a Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. He has received numerous awards and recognitions and sits on several corporate and industry governing boards.
“We are fortunate to be able to recruit a person as experienced and talented as Shafiq,” Dandorph said. “As Rush continues to expand access to care across the region, linking our academic health network will be critical. Shafiq understands the invaluable role that information provided to clinicians, educators and students can play and appreciates the need to simplify interactions with technology in a way that enables adoptions.”
“Equally important, Shafiq will help Rush use information technologies in creative, new ways that improve and expand our patients’ and the public’s many interactions with Rush physicians and staff,” he added. “His clinical and public health expertise will help Rush to use technology to grow in its mission to improve the health of the individuals and diverse communities it serves.”