CHICAGO— Apervita, a trusted healthcare technology leader delivering innovative technology solutions to payers, providers and other stakeholders, today welcomes health IT veteran Rick Howard as Chief Product Officer.
In his role, Rick will oversee product vision, innovation, design, and delivery of Apervita’s digital platform, which enables digital quality measurement, clinical intelligence, as well as value-based contract monitoring and performance measurement. His mission is to lead the development and execution of a product strategy built on the interoperable near-frictionless flow of data and knowledge between payers, providers and other stakeholders with the ultimate goal of enabling the Learning Health System.
Rick’s experience spans many health IT initiatives, from EHR integrations and ICD-10 adoptions for large health systems to developing analytics systems to help reduce post-operative infections. Prior to Apervita, he held several executive posts that focus on supporting high-growth healthcare organizations through product, data and technological innovation.
“I’m honored to join a powerhouse team to help further advance the healthcare and life sciences industry in its journey of digital transformation,” Howard said. “Developing and delivering solutions for payers, providers and other stakeholders to make healthcare smarter, and ultimately to improve patient care, is a mission I do not take lightly. I look forward to helping Apervita create a frictionless digital engagement model between payers and providers.”
At Ascension Technologies, Rick served as Vice President, Infrastructure and Engineering, as well as Chief Data Officer. In these positions, he was responsible for initiatives aligning data, technology, engineering and operations planning functions. He led a team that applied advances in automation, intelligent design and data-driven decision-making for patient care with an emphasis on capturing data and using it to support product design, development and optimization.
Rick also served as Ascension’s Vice President, Data and Insights, Chief Data Officer and Interim Vice President of Operations. In these positions, he focused on technical design and the development of solutions that supported data needs. His responsibilities included developing data interoperability, exchange, utilization, and quality solutions for the organization’s stored and in-transit data requirements.
Prior to Ascension, Rick held key roles in clinical research and regulatory filings for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Asian regulatory agencies, information systems operations, administration, and education.
“Rick has dedicated his career to guiding IT strategy and solution development to achieve maximum operational impact,” said Kareem Saad, President & Chief Operations Officer at Apervita. “He will have a meaningful impact on the continued evolution of Apervita’s platform as well as our value optimization, quality measurement and clinical intelligence solutions. I look forward to collaborating closely with him on Apervita’s next phase of product development.”
