Subscribe to News 
Back to SearchJuly 15, 2021 – Ottawa – CHEO’s Chief Innovation Office Mari Teitelbaum was today named 2021’s Public Sector CIO of the Year by IT World Canada (ITWC), the CIO Association of Canada and CanadianCIO. The honour recognizes Canadian technology leaders who have demonstrated business and tech vision, entrepreneurship, a capacity to drive enterprise transformation and a demonstrated ability to drive value for money.
“Every day at CHEO we work with children, youth, families and each other to make things better for kids in our region,” said Mari Teitelbaum, who is also CHEO’s Vice-president of Strategy, Quality and Family Partnership, where she uses digital solutions to improve care and patient experience. “It’s amazing to see innovative ideas turn into real change – making care safer, easier, faster and more effective. I love being part of this.”
A panel of eight judges selected Ms. Teitelbaum based on her innovation, creativity, business acumen, technological vision and her ability to use all of this to drive organizational change at CHEO – demonstrated by some of her most recent career highlights:
- Leading the digital revolution at CHEO (Canada’s first hospital to adopt Epic, a world-class electronic health records system).
- Enabling CHEO to launch Canada’s first virtual pediatric Emergency Department in response to families concerned about visiting the hospital during the pandemic.
- Creating a platform for virtual bedside rounds to maximize involvement of the care team and families in real-time, while maintaining physical distance and preserving personal protective equipment.
- Implementing efficient self-scheduling for the high demand at CHEO’s COVID-19 testing centre.
- Supporting a significant portion of CHEO’s workforce, both clinical and administrative, to work effectively and efficiently from home, while ensuring privacy of personal health information.
With Ms. Teitelbaum at the helm and COVID-19 demanding that CHEO work differently, these changes were implemented in days — not months, as is the usual case with changes of this magnitude.
“More than dollars saved, or efficiencies gained, it’s the improvements CHEO has made in patient safety because of innovations led by Mari that are most impressive,” said Alex Munter, President and CEO of CHEO. “Lives have been saved by the CHEO Virtual Emergency Department, which, through Mari’s leadership, went from an idea, to seeing patients in under a month.”
CHEO’s pandemic response would not have been possible without the vision Ms. Teitelbaum had to make CHEO a leader in electronic health records (EHR) — a patient health information system designed to improve care and safety. Under Ms. Teitelbaum’s leadership, CHEO became the first hospital in Canada to reach HIMMS Level 6 (a global measure of EHR digital capabilities) across all hospital services.
Following CHEO’s successful EHR implementation, SickKids Hospital in Toronto began the same journey. Ms. Teitelbaum collaborated with partners at SickKids and CHEO’s EHR vendor to create a unique shared model between the hospitals – a foundation for pediatric care in the province. This collaboration resulted in a 20% savings for the project and, more importantly, means the latest health information for shared patients is available to providers at both hospitals. Care provided is better and safer because of this technology.
“As the face of innovation and technology at CHEO, Mari has earned the trust of the organization through her effective leadership and the outstanding work of her teams,” said Alex Munter. “Mari’s vision of innovation always connects back to CHEO’s mission of the best life for every child and youth.”
Ms. Teitelbaum was presented with a virtual award at the 2021 ITWC Digital Transformation Week Conference, where she was also inducted into the national CanadianCIO Hall of Fame.
Learn more about the 2021 CIO of the Year awards and CHEO’s innovative COVID-19 response.
– 30 –
Media contact
Paddy Moore, CHEO
o. 613-737-7600, ext. 3536 | c. 613-769-5553 | pmoore@cheo.on.ca
About CHEO
Dedicated to the best life for every child and youth, CHEO is a global leader in pediatric health care and research. Based in Ottawa, CHEO includes a hospital, children’s treatment centre, school and research institute, with satellite services located throughout Eastern Ontario. CHEO provides excellence in complex pediatric care, research and education. We are committed to partnering with families and the community to provide exceptional care — where, when and how it’s needed. CHEO is a partner of the Kids Come First Health Team, a network of partners working to create a high quality, standardized and coordinated system for pediatric health care that is centred around children, youth and their families. Every year, CHEO helps more than 500,000 children and youth from Eastern Ontario, western Quebec, Nunavut and Northern Ontario.