Survey: Top CMIO focus is on reducing errors

Chief medical information officers and other medical informatics directors tend to love their jobs and want to stick around for a while, even though this is a relatively new position for many organizations, according to a survey of this discipline by CMIO magazine.

Two-thirds of the 118 CMIOs who took the online survey said they were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their compensation and 86 percent indicated they had no immediate plans to leave their jobs. The majority of CMIOs earn between $180,000 and $300,000 annually in base salary, though a third of survey respondents make less than $180,000 a year. Nearly half did not receive a bonus in 2009, reflecting the moribund economy, though 56 percent say they expect to get one this year.

Their top IT priorities for 2010 include reducing medical errors, delivering clinical knowledge to practicing physicians and implementing EMRs, while on the business side, CMIOs are planning on concentrating on EMRs, CPOE and clinical decision support this year.

Other notable findings:

* 93 percent of CMIOs are men

* 68 percent currently practice medicine

* 36 percent report to the CIO, 31 percent to the CMO and 13 percent directly to the CEO

For more data and analysis:
- check out this CMIO feature

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