Helga Rippen

Position: Chief health information officer and vice president, Center for Health Information Technology, Westat, a Rockville corporation that provides research, information and consulting services primarily in health and education.

Career highlights: Chief health information officer and vice president, Health Care Authority; senior adviser, Department of Health and Human Services; director, Science and Technology Policy Institute, Rand Corp.

Age: 50.

Education: BS, mechanical engineering, Florida Atlantic University; PhD, biomedical engineering, Duke University; MD, University of Florida; MPH, health policy and management, Johns Hopkins University.

Personal: Lives in McLean with husband Rafael and five children.

How did you get to where you are today?

I grew up in the era of the bionic man. It was really exciting to me, because it combined my love of engineering and medicine. I always knew I wanted to invent and build things.

After my residency at Johns Hopkins University, I joined a science and technology nonprofit where I brought together major organizations and leaders across the country to address national problems like assessing the quality of information on the Internet. I also worked on providing tools for everyday people to do their own health-risk assessment.

Then I jumped on the chance to build systems that had an impact on the health-care industry. At Pfizer Health Solutions, I built disease-management systems. I also focused on implementing the best practices for patients who have, for example, diabetes or asthma.

Later, an opportunity opened up for me to work at Rand and support the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. . . . [In time,] I was asked to join the Department of Health and Human Services as an assistant secretary of planning and evaluation to help them work on health information technology. Prior to this, I had some exposure with working with government organizations, but I didn't really have an appreciation for how department skills are brought together across various departments.

Eventually, I started seeing that I had done policy and built systems but what I hadn't done was the implementation end of things.

I took on a position as the chief health information officer at the Health Care Authority, putting together a very complex road map for their electronic health record system. It covered more than 373 hospitals and 300 physician offices, surgical centers and imaging centers.

Eventually, I came back home to the District. I met some of the people here at Westat. What amazed me was the diverse expertise. I hope to help our clients be as successful as possible in the way they leverage health information technology in their programs.

-- Vanessa Mizell

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