Jamie Nelson Email Address

Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Founded in 1863, HSS is a non-profit hospital dedicated to rheumatic and orthopedic diseases. Since the inception of an academic program in rheumatology following the appointment of Richard Freyberg in 1945, HSS has shown a steady and growing research commitment. Dr. Charles Christian was instrumental in building a research base that was fully integrated with clinical activities in rheumatic diseases, providing a strong environment for successful research. Since 1996, Dr. Stephen Paget has continued the tradition of strong support for research activities that are characterized by detailed and focused investigation of the basic pathogenic mechanisms of human autoimmune and rheumatic diseases. In this unique environment, basic research is integrated with patient-oriented research through daily interactions and collaborations among rheumatologists and investigators active in clinical activities and bench research. Over the past 10 years, HSS has held NIH/NIAMS Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disease Center and Specialized Center of Research in Lupus grants, as well as individual research awards from NIH, the Arthritis Foundation, the S.L.E. Foundation, Inc., the Alliance for Lupus Research, the Lupus Research Institute, and other funding agencies. The Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease was established in 1997, and the Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research was established in 2001. Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Registries and Tissue/DNA Repositories established since 1995 now include clinical information, tissue, and DNA samples from more than 1500 patients. Throughout its distinguished history, HSS Rheumatology Research has taken the approach that progress in understanding systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other rheumatic diseases will move most rapidly toward new and more effective therapies if basic research is combined with research driven by the patient. There are few centers of rheumatic disease research as well organized for multidisciplinary studies of underlying disease mechanisms and clinical aspects of rheumatic and systemic autoimmune diseases by collaborating basic and clinical scientists, of whom many are rheumatologists.

JAMIE M. NELSON is SVP and CIO at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Ms. Nelson’s career in healthcare includes extensive experience in IT Leadership and Consulting, Hospital Operations and Lean. Ms. Nelson’s accomplishments at HSS include developing and implementing an IT Strategy supporting HSS's strategic roadmap, and most notably led the Hospital’s decision and implementation process to install Epic across inpatient and ambulatory settings for all clinical and revenue cycle applications. Based on these efforts, HSS has been recognized by Epic as in the top 6% of successful EMR implementations. Under her leadership, HSS has been awarded at HIMSS level 7, a recognition achieved by 5% of hospitals in the U.S. and the prestigious HIMSS Davies Award. In her 7-year tenure at HSS, Ms. Nelson rebuilt the IT function, nearly doubling the number of staff and creating key leadership positons including CMIO, CTO, CISO and VP Applications and VP Analytics. Another major area of her focus and accomplishment was the complete re-architecting of HSS’s technical and security infrastructure, including a new data and voice network and cybersecurity program. Her leadership also includes building a strong HSS-wide analytics team supporting the HSS Digital Patient Consumer Experience. Ms. Nelson was named as one of the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT in 2017, 2018 and 2019 by Health Data Management and most recently she was named one of Crain’s New York Top Women in Information Technology in 2019. Prior to her work at HSS, Ms. Nelson’s professional employment includes Norwalk Hospital, NYPH, MSKCC, FCG, and E&Y. An active member in her community, Ms. Nelson serves on the NYC Advisory Board of The Devereux Foundation, is a major donor to the New York City Ballet and supports WiTNY by offering internships to CUNY undergraduates. Ms. Nelson earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and received her MBA from Cornell University.