H. Stephen Lieber Named 2018 Glaser Award Recipient

The John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society was initiated by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI) in recognition of the expertise and leadership of John P. Glaser, PhD, who is a universally recognized thought leader in the field of health informatics. The John P. Glaser Health Informatics Society was created to acknowledge innovators in the field of health informatics and provide education, collaboration, and networking opportunities for the broader community of health informatics professionals, clinicians, and students. Ivo D. Nelson, a celebrated health information technology entrepreneur, was accorded the 2016 John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award and Dr. David Westfall Bates, an internationally renowned patient safety expert, accepted the Glaser Award in 2017.

On October 29, 2018, veteran health care management executive and consultant, H. Stephen Lieber, will receive the 2018 John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award and be formally inducted into the Glaser Society by its Founding Member, John P. Glaser, PhD, and SBMI Dean, Jiajie Zhang, PhD. The event will include a lecture by Lieber entitled Paper to Digital: How Federal Policy Transformed Health IT in America, followed by a reception in his honor; a more detailed announcement will be disseminated to the public in the near future.

For 17 years, H. Stephen Lieber served as President & CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)—a $95+ million, mission-based not-for-profit organization operating in more than 40 countries—which includes offices in the US, UK, Germany, and Singapore. HIMSS is one of the 10 largest US healthcare associations and the largest association of its kind focused on healthcare information technology (HIT). Annually, HIMSS presents the world’s largest healthcare IT conference and exhibition, with an attendance of more than 40,000.

Not long ago Dr. John Glaser observed, “In his leadership role with HIMSS, Steve Lieber was instrumental in representing the healthcare IT industry to government and related entities, providing leadership within and external to HIMSS on seminal trends and issues. Moreover, in private practice, he continues to wield his considerable influence in health IT and the health technology sector. Lieber’s contributions to the advancement of healthcare information technology are myriad and substantial.”

“In his strategic leadership role, Steve Lieber established HIMSS as a global leader on issues such as electronic health records, interoperability, technology standards, IT adoption, and certification. He also expanded the scope of HIMSS to encompass ambulatory IT issues and healthcare business and acute care clinical information systems. Thus, we are very proud to accord the 2018 John P. Glaser Health Informatics Innovator Award to Steve Lieber,” affirmed SBMI’s Dean, Dr. Jiajie Zhang.

SBMI Associate Dean for Applied Health Informatics, Dr. Robert Murphy, remarked on Lieber’s skill in growing HIMSS. “In terms of audience reach and annual revenues, Steve grew HIMSS by a factor of 10, through a series of mergers and acquisitions of both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, along with organic growth. Highlights of these advances included the formation of HIMSS Analytics, a health IT market intelligence company, and HIMSS Media, a diversified B2B information company.”

Since retiring from HIMSS, Lieber has been a Principal for Avisos Partners, LLC, where he serves as a consultant to associations in the areas of governance development, strategic and operational analysis, and international business expansion. In addition, Lieber is Of Counsel at Quick Leonard Kieffer, a retained search firm focused on executive recruitment for hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, health care associations and professional societies, the life sciences, and insurance companies, as well as non-profit organizations and foundations. Finally, he serves as Executive Advisor to Next Wave Connect, an early stage IT and strategy company focused on empowering associations with content-driven technology solutions.

Lieber received an MA in Social Policy and Administration from the University of Chicago; he has also completed additional graduate coursework at the Keller Graduate School of Management and programs at other universities; he has been a Certified Association Executive (CAE) since 1994.

H. Stephen Lieber has accrued many honors and achievements over the course of his career, including but not limited to the following: Honorary Life Member, American Hospital Association; Honorary Life Member, HIMSS; Honorary Life Member, American Society of Healthcare Risk Management; Top 100 Most Influential Healthcare Leaders, Modern Healthcare, 2004-2015; and service on numerous prestigious boards and panels.

published on 6/20/2018 at 3:55 p.m.