Joanne Burns is senior vice president and chief strategy officer. She works directly with the CEO to advance the company’s strategic initiatives and directions.
As chief strategy officer, Burns helps shape Cerner’s strategy internally and externally.
She partners closely with clients to drive value creation through action plans that spark technology and industry advances inside their organizations.
Previously, Burns was chief information officer and executive director of the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation, a joint venture between Cerner and the University of Missouri Health System. In the Tiger Institute, she created the model for how Cerner clients leverage technology as a strategic enabler to achieve their mission and realize their vision.
Through her work with the electronic medical record, including computerized physician order entry, Burns led the organization from a HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model Level 3 to a Level 7 in less than 3 years. Under her leadership, University of Missouri Health Care has received the Health Informatics Most Wired Award in 2011 & 2012, was named a US News & World Report’s Most Connected Hospital, and received the 2011 Missouri Quality Award.
In addition, the Tiger Institute collaborated with the University of Missouri School of Medicine on the award of a $13.3M CMS Healthcare Innovation Challenge grant – Leveraging Information Technology to Gain High Tech, High Touch Care (LIGHT2).
Prior to her role at the Tiger Institute, Burns was vice president, Global and Specialty Solution Strategy, Navigator Organization. For six years, she served as the Intellectual Property (IP) lead for the academic and pediatric communities, international clients, and was responsible for the development of PowerChart Oncology™, PowerChart Maternity® and FetaLink®.
Before joining Cerner in 2004, Burns held various positions in health care spanning 22 years, including clinical and IT leadership roles at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and Stanford University Medical Center and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, and spoken in national forums on a variety of topics related to oncology care, critical care and the use of information technology in health care.
Joanne received a bachelor of science in nursing degree from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. She also has a master’s degree in health services administration from the University of San Francisco.