Transform SSO’s Mazen Joukhadar wins award

TORONTO – Mazen Joukhadar (pictured), vice president and chief information, privacy and security officer, has been honoured as CIO of the year for the Non Profit category in an annual competition. The awards are given by IT World Canada (ITWC) and the CIO Association of Canada.

Mazen’s award submission illustrates the power of shared services collaborations in delivering transformative outcomes across multiple organizations to achieve the broader goal of improving healthcare for a region. It proves that even separately governed organizations can benefit from the shared services model when given the right kind of leadership.

TransForm SSO supports five acute care hospitals in Southwestern Ontario. In the past four years, these hospitals shifted from paper records to a fully electronic system through the implementation of an end-to-end digital regional health information system, enabling the four hospitals to achieve Level 6 of 7 on the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model. Mazen’s team had to adjust due to the COVID-19 pandemic, investing in collaboration tools to support the large clinical transformation.

They implemented and leveraged MS Teams across the four hospitals, provided virtual training tools, and implemented a digital COVID screening tool to meet ever changing pandemic guidelines. Mazen’s team was also instrumental in supporting the effective operations of the TransForm region’s first COVID mass vaccination site, including providing an appointment booking system to help manage demand.

To date, Mazen’s work with digital transformation has led to several outstanding accomplishments.

The organization had over 85 percent adoption rate of computerized provider order entry, achieved more than 75 percent adoption of positive patient identification through bar coding, and TransForm provided closed loop medication, blood product, breast milk administration, and physician documentation within the chart.

On top of that, Mazen’s work contributed to a 20 percent improved patient satisfaction rate, decreased adverse drug reactions, and improved medication reconciliation on admission and discharge.

This award is definitely well earned. Congratulations to Mazen Joukhadar, the 2022 CIO of the Year in the Non Profit sector category!

Mazen Joukhadar joined TransForm’s senior leadership team in November 2015. He is a past partner with Accenture, a global management and IT consulting company where he led a division of over 80 employees in North America and was accountable for over 1,000 employees internationally. He has also worked across several industries, including public health and insurance sectors. Maz’s primary focus was delivering strategic solutions to support a client’s customer relationship management vision. Maz’s career evolved over his 15+ years at Accenture, starting as a technical architect and eventually focusing on strategic consulting, developing business plans and IT roadmaps.