Siemens Taps Glaser To Lead Global Healthcare ITSiemens Taps Glaser To Lead Global Healthcare IT

Partners Healthcare CIO John Glaser, who recently spent a year-long stint as an advisor to President Obama's health IT czar, is leaving his long-time post at Partners to become CEO of Siemens Healthcare's Health Services Business Unit.

In his new job at Siemens, which becomes effective August 16, Glaser will lead Siemens global healthcare IT business, which includes multiple health IT services brands, such as hosting and other services provided by Siemens information systems data center in Malvern, Penn.

Since 1995, Glaser served as CIO and VP at Partners Healthcare, a Boston-area integrated health delivery network that operates several hospitals, including Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's, as well as home healthcare services, many outpatient facilities, and doctor groups.

Till recently, Glaser also spent nearly a year commuting regularly to D.C. serving in a temporary post as an advisor to Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health IT as the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services hammered out details of the HITECH bill. Blumenthal is a former Partners physician.

In an email to information, Glaser said he's planning to commute from his home in the Boston area to Siemens in Malvern, Penn., "similar to my Office of National Coordinator routine" while advising Blumenthal's team.

Glaser, who was named an information Innovator and Influencer in 2007, was also founding chairman of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, a professional organization of healthcare CIOs and other senior IT leaders. Glaser is also co-creator of the New England Health EDI Network, a consortium that lets health care providers swap administrative and payment data with insurers.

Glaser and Siemens Healthcare aren't exactly strangers. Partners has been a customer of Siemens Healthcare for many years. That includes Partners signing "a major health IT contract with Siemens in mid-2007" to integrate Siemens web-based health information system, Soarian, into Partners' workflow, said a Siemens spokesman. In addition, Partners' North Shore Medical Center has been a Siemens IT customer "for much longer, approximately 20 years, and remains under separate contract for Siemens' legacy health IT system, Invision, for clinical applications and financial workflows," the spokesman said in an email to information.

In his new post at Siemens, Glaser replaces former CEO Janet Dillione, who resigned from Siemens in March and shortly afterward took a position as executive vice president and general manager of Nuance's healthcare business. Nuance's products include Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition products, which are frequently used by doctors in lieu of traditional medical dictation services.