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Defense Health Agency Teams Receive Health IT Symposium Awards

Image of Defense Health Agency’s leaders presented some awards to three DHA teams for their work in auditability compliance, cyber security, and rationalization/alignment of resources in military hospital and clinics at the 2023 Defense Health Information Technology Symposium on Aug. 8. Pictured are, from the left; Kevin Griffin, deputy chief information officer at Evans Army Community Hospital, Pat Flanders, program executive officer medical systems/chief information officer for the DHA, James Laster, chief information officer at Irwin Army Community Hospital, Tonya Reeder, CIO, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Sharon Opel, chief technology officer, WRNMMC, DHA Deputy Director Dr. Michael Malanoski, Stephen Ngeke, division chief of infrastructure and operations, WRMMC, and U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Ivonne Arena, deputy chief information officer. Defense Health Agency’s leaders presented some awards to three DHA teams for their work in auditability compliance, cyber security, and rationalization/alignment of resources in military hospital and clinics at the 2023 Defense Health Information Technology Symposium on Aug. 8. Pictured are, from the left; Kevin Griffin, deputy chief information officer at Evans Army Community Hospital, Pat Flanders, program executive officer medical systems/chief information officer for the DHA, James Laster, chief information officer at Irwin Army Community Hospital, Tonya Reeder, CIO, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Sharon Opel, chief technology officer, WRNMMC, DHA Deputy Director Dr. Michael Malanoski, Stephen Ngeke, division chief of infrastructure and operations, WRMMC, and U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Ivonne Arena, deputy chief information officer.

Department of Defense leaders recognized innovators in military health IT at the Defense Health Information Technology Symposium on Aug. 8, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Defense Health Agency’s leaders including Deputy Director Dr. Michael Malanoski; Pat Flanders, program executive officer medical systems/chief information officer, and U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Ivonne Arena, deputy chief information officer presented the awards.

Flanders designed these awards to honor those who excel in three categories that support the J-6, or Information Operations, strategic priorities.

“I’m really lucky to work with so many talented and smart military hospital and clinic chief information officers and their teams. I wanted to recognize the standouts for their support of my strategic priorities,” said Flanders.

Defense Health IT Awards

Three DHA teams received awards for their work in auditability compliance, cyber security, and rationalization/alignment of resources in military hospital and clinics.

James Laster, chief information officer at Irwin Army Community Hospital, Fort Riley, accepted the award for auditability compliance. The award recognized the site CIO that has made the most progress resolving notices of findings and recommendations, and through reporting monthly compliance with DHA’s procedural instruction—maintaining information security control compliance for DHA information systems.

Kevin Griffin, deputy CIO at Evans Army Community Hospital, Fort Carson, accepted the award for cyber security. This award recognized the CIO doing the best job managing their authorizations to operate and overall cyber hygiene.

Representatives from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center accepted the award for rationalization or alignment of resources. The award recognized the CIO doing the best job submitting monthly reports on Ektropy — a tool providing insight into personnel, programs, cost, and contracts across all IT activities. Accepting the award for WRNMMC were Tonya Reeder, CIO; Sharon Opel, chief technology officer; and Stephen Ngeke, division chief of infrastructure and operations.

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Last Updated: August 11, 2023
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