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PRESS RELEASE
August 19, 2011 
 For Immediate Release
Contact:
Alex Barrios
(916) 224-4766 

Cal eConnect CEO Carladenise Edwards Steps Down

EMERYVILLE, CA - Effective August 18, 2011, Carladenise Edwards will be leaving her post as President & CEO of Cal eConnect, Inc., the non-profit, public benefit corporation created to develop California's electronic Health Information Exchange ("HIE") in cooperation with California's Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS). Dr. Edwards will continue to serve the organization as a Senior Advisor. Dr. Edwards served as the State HIT Coordinator in Georgia when she was recruited to come to California to jumpstart the State's HIE efforts.

 

"Dr. Edwards has done a great job getting our "start-up" company off the ground in a complex and uncertain environment," says David Lansky, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cal eConnect and President and CEO of PBGH. "Launching a new organization of this caliber in such a short timeframe has been an enormous accomplishment."

 

Dr. Edwards has been a catalyst for change with a passionate commitment to develop HIEs. She was responsible for launching Florida's HIE efforts as the Executive Director of Governor Bush's Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board in 2004. In 2007, she moved to Georgia to create the Office of Health Information Technology and Transparency within the Department of Community Health under Commissioner Rhonda Medows who lead the agency under Governor Sonny Perdue's administration. 

 

In July, 2010, she was recruited to come to California to build Cal eConnect, the state governance entity for HIE envisioned by Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature as the engine needed to drive the federal goals under the HITECH provisions within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

 

"We are so glad that we were able to benefit from her entrepreneurial spirit and her capacity to build an organization from the ground up," says David Joyner of Blue Shield of California, Cal eConnect Board Secretary and Chair of the Business Advisory Group.

 

Dr. Edwards plans on spending valuable time with her husband and two young children before embarking upon her next major project.

Cal eConnect is a private, nonprofit corporation designated by the State of California to provide leadership and oversee a collaborative process for developing and supporting health information exchange policies and services in California. Cal eConnect is tasked with establishing ground rules by which health information can be exchanged appropriately among clinicians, hospitals, health plans, patients, and government programs, including public health and Medi-Cal. It also oversees and manages implementation of HIE services throughout the state under a federal grant California received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

 
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