Joel L. Vengco leads the technology and informatics vision, strategy, operations, and innovation for the health system. He also holds the position of Chief Information Officer for the Pioneer Valley Accountable Care Organization, the ACO for western Massachusetts. Mr. Vengco is passionate about how informatics and technology can improve the delivery, the experience, and the overall cost of healthcare. He believes that by transforming data into information, information into insight, and taking those insights and enabling providers and patients to take action by using technology, healthcare delivery can be reinvented.

In 2013 he co-founded the Pioneer Valley Information Exchange, PVIX (www.pvix.org), the region’s health information exchange platform focused on a “one patient, one record” through data interoperability across disparate systems and organizations. In 2014, Mr. Vengco founded TechSpring (www.techspringhealth.org), Baystate Health’s technology innovation center, seeded by a $9.5M state grant awarded to Baystate Health by Governor Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. TechSpring is focused on solving healthcare’s toughest problems through the establishment of a global, technology and informatics innovation community based in the heart of Springfield. He is also the founder of baytechIT (www.baytechit.com), a joint venture between Baystate Health and VertitechIT, focused on providing IT managed services to healthcare organizations across the region. Other accomplishments at Baystate include the modernization of Baystate’s technology platforms improving system agility, resilience, and security; the establishment of new platforms for patient engagement such as mobile apps and telehealth; clinical system optimization and enhancements; and leading the conversion of EHR systems for Baystate’s previously acquired hospitals. Mr. Vengco is also the champion of Baystate Health’s initiatives in data analytics and knowledge management.

Mr. Vengco has over 18 years of healthcare information and technology experience holding senior IT leadership positions in healthcare organizations such as Boston Medical Center and Partners Healthcare. He has also held senior leadership positions at healthcare IT companies, most recently as Vice President and General Manager at GE Healthcare.

He has been recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the “Top 100 Health System CIOs To Know” and “50 National Leaders in IT”. He has also been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the Top 25 Clinical Informaticists in the country. In 2016, he was appointed by Governor Baker to the Massachusetts Digital Healthcare Council. He is frequently asked to speak at conferences on HIT related topics and is a lecturer at Boston University’s School of Management.

Mr. Vengco holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College and has Masters degrees from Harvard University and the Boston University School of Medicine.