It has been one of the greatest privileges of my professional career to serve as President of the HIMSS TN Chapter for the past two years.  Sure, it’s been a lot of work and taken a great deal of time, but I would not trade it for anything.  Every president that came before made great contributions.  I would especially like to thank Brian Moyer for his mentorship, friendship and moral support along the way.  I’m also pleased to see Brian continue to represent TN HIMSS through his role as CEO of the Nashville Technology Council.

Although we haven’t met my membership goal yet (we will), I’m pleased that the chapter grew 15 percent these last two years.  That’s a testament to the great content and quality programming that TN HIMSS continues to provide.  Every day TN HIMSS pursues its pillars of professional growth, workforce development and advocacy on behalf of our members.

I would like to recognize and thank the Board of Directors for their guidance, leadership and contributions to the chapter and to our industry.  Special thanks go out to the Leadership Team (our officers and committee leaders) for their unselfish contributions to the successful operation of the chapter.  This is a very engaged, bright and thoughtful group that accomplishes so much, often behind the scenes.  I also take great pride in our focus on the future leaders of our healthcare industry through the TN HIMSS Ambassador program.

TN HIMSS is able to accomplish much due to the incomparable Tiffany Madigan (Townson).  Tiffany has been a delight to work with every day for the past two years and I’m more than pleased that our collective paths crossed on this journey.

I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to my employer, Change Healthcare, who has been extremely supportive of TN HIMSS these past few years.  Not only as an annual sponsor,  but more importantly in happily supporting the time commitment required to help lead the best HIMSS chapter in the world.

Moving forward, the chapter could not be in better hands than with Eric Thrailkill, our President for the next two years.  Eric has been a great partner and I’m thrilled to see where his leadership takes the chapter.  Eric is a nationally respected HIT leader, not only as VP and Chief Information Officer of AMSURG, but also as a thought leader on innovation.  I will continue to serve the chapter as Past-President and Board Member and focus my attention on membership growth.  I still want to hit my original goal!  This chapter has too much to offer not to be sharing it with more and more members.  What a great time to be in healthcare and technology!

Respectfully,

Tommy Lewis, CPHIMS, FHIMSS