A military view of educating, training and inspiring future CIOs

Col. Ragsdale By Patty Enrado, Editor

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Military Health Systems traditionally has a big presence at the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, and this year is no different.

At its exhibit booth (701), MHS will be demonstrating its AHLTA family of products and healthcare business support systems that combined give providers seamless access to healthcare information for the nation’s wounded warriors from the battlefield to the military treatment facilities and Veterans Administration hospitals.

MHS will also be delivering 14 education sessions, ranging from the AHLTA Wounded Warriors Initiatives to the communications and computing infrastructure to support a world-wide electronic health record.

On Sunday, Feb. 24, at 2:30 PM in Room 330, Colonel Daniel Ragsdale, vice dean of education at the United States Military Academy, will present “The Changing Face of Leadership: People and Technology Matter,” as part of the CIO Forum.

Focusing on educating, training and inspiring future CIOs, Ragsdale will discuss the West Point leader development model and how this model can be replicated in other settings, especially in high-stress environments in which IT leaders and managers routinely operate.

He will also talk about West Point’s mutually supporting programs that are designed to develop what he calls “true leaders of character – leaders who are confident, agile and adaptive.” “West Point’s mission is to train leaders who are technically competent and who are prepared for the many difficult challenges they will face as Army officers during a time of war,” he explained.

Ragsdale will provide examples of recent West Point graduates who have shown “superlative leadership at critical times.” These examples are testaments to how West Point prepares its graduates to take advantage of ubiquitously deployed IT and face the challenges that IT can bring.

“The leader development methodologies in place at West Point are time-proven and effective,” he said. “These methods can be readily employed in other settings, particularly settings in which the leaders must be technically competent and who must operate in difficult, complex and often ambiguous environments.”