UH makes it permanent: Jeffrey Sunshine is chief medical information officer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — University Hospitals has appointed Dr. Jeffrey L. Sunshine as vice president and chief medical information officer — posts he has held on an interim basis since November.

Dr. Sunshine will help lead the information systems and services team at University Hospitals, particularly as the Cleveland-based health system develops its $100 million electronic medical record (EMR) project. While interim, he led EMR implementation across eight of UH’s hospitals.

For UH, an electronic medical record is a computerized medical chart aimed at improving patient care and safety by being a single, centralized source of accurate health information for doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

Jeffrey L. Sunshine

“Dr. Sunshine has exhibited exceptional leadership skills and has nurtured excellent relationships with our medical staff that have been key in the progress we’ve made in our EMR project,” said Dr. Achilles Demetriou, president of UH, in a written statement. “As a clinician at University Hospitals, he has been an ardent supporter in the efforts to develop an EMR that is truly integrated within our entire health system and that will improve the quality of care we offer to patients.”

Sunshine has been involved with the UH electronic medical record since 2004 as medical director and director of enterprise clinician adoption. the health system said. He will remain director of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a diagnostic and interventional neuroradiologist with University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

He has been on the faculty of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicinesince 1996. He earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in neurobiology from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in neuroradiology at University Hospitals.

Sunshine replaces Dr. Holly Miller, who UH hired away from the Cleveland Clinic at the beginning of 2007. A heavy-hitter in electronic health information technology development and standards, Miller now is chief medical officer of MedAllies, a Fishkill, N.Y., company that helps physician offices implement electronic health record systems.