Innovation Summit: West

Dr. Zafar Chaudry has been Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Seattle Children's since November 06, 2017. Zafar received a promotion to Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Officer in 2021. Through his role, he provides vision and leadership for the development of technology initiatives and enterprise-wide information systems and services for Seattle Children’s. His goal is to enable clinicians with the best technology to deliver safe and excellent care to our patients.

Dr. Zafar Chaudry is a recognized leader and valued mentor in healthcare technology. Dr. Chaudry was a nominee for the 2024 and 2023 National CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards for Healthcare. Dr. Chaudry is an award recipient of the 2022 CHIME Transformational Leader Award and the 2022 Seattle CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards for Healthcare. Dr. Zafar Chaudry was a nominee for the 2021 CHIME - AHA Transformational Leadership Award. Dr. Chaudry has also been a finalist for the Seattle CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards (2020 and 2021). He is also a member of the global elite list Constellation’s Business Transformation 150 (BT150) 2020; that recognizes the top global executives leading business transformation efforts in their organizations. Dr. Chaudry received naming to the Becker’s Hospital Review’s 102 Hospital CIOs to Know (2021), Becker’s Hospital Review’s 100 Hospital CIOs to Know (2019 and 2020), CIO magazine’s list of United Kingdom CIOs to follow on Twitter (2019) and Becker's Hospital Review (USA) 105 Hospital and Health System CIOs to Know (2018). He was also named to the CIO.CO.UK’s Top 100 list of the most transformative CIOs in the U.K. (2017) and Government Computing’s top 100 influential technology leaders in the United Kingdom public sector (2010).

Dr. Chaudry, who began his career as a physician, has more than 30 years of experience in all aspects of information technology. His background includes work in both healthcare and corporate settings in the U.S., Australia, Western Europe, and the U.K., in enterprise infrastructure development; business intelligence; unified telecommunications; and implementation of health care information and electronic medical record systems. He previously served as Chief Information Officer at Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom. Prior to Cambridge University Hospitals, he served as Global Research Director at Gartner. He also served as Chief Information Officer at the Liverpool Women's and Alder Hey Children's Hospitals in the U.K.; Consulting Editor for Hospital Information Technology Europe Magazine; Information Technology Strategist for the Vision4Children Pediatric Charity in the U.K. and Teaching Faculty at the City Colleges of Chicago.

Dr. Chaudry earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Ross University. He subsequently earned his Master of Science degree in health care policy and management from the University of Birmingham. He also holds a Master of Science degree in information systems management from the University of Salford and his Master of Business Administration from Aston University, all in the United Kingdom.

Karen (K) Marhefka, DHA, is the Deputy Chief Information Officer at RWJ Barnabas Health (RWJBH) headquartered in West Orange, NJ. Dr. Marhefka is responsible for the information technology vision, strategy, and execution for the vast RWJBH Ambulatory domain. She leads the effort to advance information technology performance for 500+ provider practices and HOPD locations throughout the state of New Jersey with an intense focus on establishing a patient-centered digital health home while ensuring measurable improvements in overall care delivery, patient and provider experience, and furthering enhancements in quality, safety, access, and revenue capture.

Dr. Marhefka has over 35 years of progressive leadership experience in large healthcare organizations as both a health information technology officer and as an integrated delivery network operations executive. She is passionate about using her unique combination of healthcare operations and information technology skillsets to improve the patient and provider experience and in contributing to the advocacy and development of operations-empowered CIOs.

Shane Thielman is responsible for the vision and implementation of Scripps information and digital technology. As the organization’s chief information officer, he provides leadership for the development, implementation, integration and execution of technology and biomedical engineering initiatives, focusing on solutions that enable system strategy and deliver effective clinical and business operations.

Thielman joined Scripps Health in 2006 and has since held progressive leadership positions in strategic planning, project management, medical management and information services. His experience includes clinical process redesign, program management and performance improvement.

In 2016, he brought his experience to task, leading the continued implementation of Scripps’ system-wide inpatient and ambulatory electronic health record and revenue cycle platforms, and providing leadership for application services, analytics, and informatics.

Thielman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Willamette University and his Master of Health Administration from the University of Southern California. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and certified as a Healthcare Chief Information Officer and Digital Health Executive by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.