Gregory Farnum, the founder and president of Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL), one of the country’s leading health information exchanges, will leave the company on June 30 to be a consultant for state and local health information technology initiatives. Joshua Slen, the former director of Vermont’s Medicaid program and now a senior consultant with Bailit Health Purchasing, has been named interim CEO.
Under Farnum’s leadership, VITL developed one of the nation’s first health information exchanges that is fully compliant with standards adopted by the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) profiles. VITL has also been successful in working with primary care physician practices across Vermont to help them implement CCHIT-certified electronic health records systems.
During Farnum’s tenure, VITL developed a Vermont Health Information Technology Plan which received recognition from the Office of the National Coordinator as one of the best in the country. In addition, Farnum worked with vendors and payors to assemble a medication history service that is recognized as one of the most comprehensive in the U.S. VITL also launched a results messaging service that has delivered thousands of lab results from hospitals around the state to physician electronic health records systems since the service began last September.
Effective immediately, Interim CEO Joshua Slen will lead the organization while a national search is underway for a permanent CEO. Slen joined Bailit Health Purchasing in January 2009 after 18 years with state government in both Ohio and Vermont. Slen held the post of Medicaid director for the State of Vermont from 2004 through 2008. In that capacity he was the lead negotiator on the 1115 federal waiver that created the first statewide public managed care organization. Slen was also a key player in the redesign of the health care system in Vermont, serving on the Executive Committee of the Blueprint for Health, a statewide public-private partnership to improve the system of care for individuals with chronic illness. He also developed a comprehensive Medicaid Chronic Care Management Program that integrates state and contracted resources in order to provide support to the existing community level health care delivery system.
