Meet the 2019 Most Influential Women in Health IT

Dr. Hudak is the professor and director of the health informatics graduate program in the school of information at Kent State University. She has been in this role since 2012, in addition to her role there as a contributing interdisciplinary faculty member in the school of digital sciences. Dr. Hudak has more than 30 years of experience in the health informatics field, including project management, systems implementation, systems analysis, teaching and instructional development. She was involved in the first information system implementation of MetroHealth Medical Center in 1985.
Dr. Hudak is a HIMSS Fellow and a widely recognized author, co-author and invited presenter on health informatics. She is an assistant editor for the Online Learning Journal, editor of the Fourth and Fifth Editions of the HIMSS Dictionary of Health Information Technology Terms, Acronyms, and Organizations and peer reviews and contributes her expertise to a multitude of industry publications.
Dr. Hudak holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in postsecondary education and a doctoral degree in urban education administration. She is a member of the HIMSS’s annual conference education committee, professional development committee, CPHIMS Technical Committee, the distance education committee, the legislation-regulation task force, the interoperability and the health information exchange leadership group. She is a certified CAHIMS/CPHIMS Review Course Instructor and a HIMSS annual conference reviewer. She is the previous president and the current chair of education for the Northern Ohio Chapter of HIMSS, where she has been on the board of directors since 2006.

Lygeia Ricciardi is the chief transformation officer at Carium, where she provides leadership on go-to-market and product strategy and heads the marketing team. Carium is a software company that empowers individuals and their care teams to successfully navigate their health journeys in a personalized, holistic way.
Lygeia has been at the vanguard of the patient engagement movement for over a decade, including federal government work where she established and led the Office of Consumer eHealth at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. In previous roles she served as president of Clear Voice Consulting and director at the Markle Foundation. Lygeia elevated patients and their interests in the context of policies and programs throughout the federal government and the private sector, including the $36 billion meaningful use program and the Blue Button Initiative, both of which enable consumers to have access to and use of their own health data. She has also written Harvard Business School case studies and shaped health technology policies at the Federal Communications Commission.
Lygeia is a frequent presenter at national conferences and is consistently voted among the most influential voices in digital health and healthcare. She has been featured by C-SPAN, the Wall Street Journal, and Consumer Reports. She has studied at Wellesley College, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the MIT Media Lab. At HIMSS, Lygeia is a Champion of Health and a Social Media Ambassador.

Denise Hines, DHA, PMP, FHIMSS is Chief Americas Officer at HIMSS. Dr. Hines is an award-winning, nationally recognized expert in healthcare technology. Dr. Hines has more than two decades of healthcare experience in a variety of settings, including health systems, physician offices, home health, technology vendors, consulting, state government and revenue management.
Dr. Hines recently was a member of the HIMSS Board of Directors and the Chair Emeritus for HIMSS North America Board of Directors. She is the past president of the HIMSS Georgia Chapter and was recognized as the 2012 HIMSS Chapter Leader of the Year, with GA HIMSS named the 2012 Chapter of the Year. In 2017, she was recognized with the prestigious Women of the Year in Technology – Small Enterprise Award from Georgia’s Women in Technology (WIT).
Dr. Hines holds her doctorate degree in healthcare administration where she focused her studies on the use of electronic personal health records and the impact on patient health. She also maintains certifications in project management, software development, and healthcare law. She is on the Board of Advisors for Georgia State University’s Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, as well as the Advisory Board for the College of Coastal Georgia.