No abstract

Physician leadership is a critical success factor for health information technology initiatives, but best practices for structuring the role and skills required for such leadership remain undefined. The authors conducted structured interviews with five physician information technology leaders, or Chief Medical Information Officers (CMIOs), at health systems that broadly used health information technology. The study aimed to identify the individual skills and organizational structure necessary for a CMIO to be effective. The interviews found that the CMIOs had significant management experience prior to serving as a CMIO and were positioned and supported within each health system similar to other executive leaders; only one of the five CMIOs had formal informatics training. A review of the findings advocates for the CMIO to have a strong background and role as a physician executive supported by knowledge in informatics, as opposed to being a highly trained informaticist with secondary management expertise or support.

Asylum seekers arriving in the United States are often imprisoned for months or years while their asylum claims are processed. Recently, Physicians for Human Rights and the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture released the findings of the first systematic study examining the health of detained asylum seekers. The study found that the mental health of asylum seekers interviewed was extremely poor, including high levels of symptoms for anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder, which worsened the longer individuals were in detention. The study also raises concerns about the manner in which asylum seekers are treated upon arrival in the United States and then while in detention. These findings support assertions that detention has a harmful effect on the health and well-being of asylum seekers. Policies regarding the long-term detention of asylum seekers should be reconsidered.