Dennis Oxton Email Address

Chief Information Officer

A 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, Sharp HealthCare is San Diego's most comprehensive health care delivery system. It is recognized for clinical excellence for services in cardiac, cancer and multiorgan transplantation, as well as orthopedics, rehabilitation, behavioral health and women's health.

Kara Marx, RN, MHS, FHIMSS, FACHE, CHCIO is the Chief Information Office at Northern Arizona Healthcare. Previously she was VP Applications Information Services at Sharp HealthCare, focusing on all applications including clinical, ancillary, finance, ERP and revenue cycle. Prior to joining Sharp HealthCare, Kara was VP, CIO at Methodist Hospital, where she provided vision and leadership on I.T., Informatics and telecommunications to the organization. She was a change agent for H.I.T. transformation for eight plus years. Before her Methodist Hospital CIO role, Kara worked as a senior consultant with several consulting firms including IBM and First Consulting Group where she had the opportunity to engage with many leading health care organizations across the country to contribute to their strategic goals. Additionally, Kara has experience working with a major pharmaceutical vendor, and a global health care IT software vendor. This work has exposed her to healthcare venues across the country. Kara has held many different roles during her time with the aforementioned organizations which further expanded her unique background of clinical practice, consulting & software implementation. Kara is a Registered Nurse, holds a Masters Degree in Healthcare Sciences from the New School of Social Research, in NY, is a Certified Healthcare CIO and is a Fellow with HIMSS and ACHE. As a RN Kara spent many years providing patient care in the ambulatory and acute care setting in the Upstate New York area. During this time she also held management positions establishing new service offerings to the community. Kara is actively involved in many industry organizations including HIMSS, CHIME and ACHE. She frequently speaks at National Industry Conferences and is published in several trade journals. Kara has participated on several Advisory Boards including KLAS Research and Quest Diagnostics. Additionally, Kara has participated in the Cal State Fullerton Advisory Board for HIT and has instructed at USC, Price School of Public Policy.