Lee Carmen, Associate Vice President for Information Systems at University of Iowa Health Care, released the following statement today.

It is my pleasure to announce that Rebecca Hegeman, MD, has agreed to serve as interim Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) for University of Iowa Health Care while we conduct a national search to fill the position formerly held by Dr. Maia Hightower.

Dr. Hegeman is clinical director of the Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, and has been an assistant CIMO since 2015. As one of the physician leaders advising Epic on development of a dialysis module for the past six years, she is now also a member of the national Epic Nephrology Steering Board. Dr. Hegeman completed residency training and a fellowship at UI Hospitals & Clinics and has been a faculty member of the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine since 1993. In the time since, she has served as faculty director of the McCowen Community (2001-2007), medical director, Renal Dialysis Treatment Center (2003-2007), vice chair for Clinical Programs, Department of Internal Medicine (2007-2012), and interim director, Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine (2012-2017).

I am grateful to Dr. Hegeman for her willingness to serve in this capacity, and my team and I are looking forward to working with her.

E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD, DEO and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, said the following:

The Department of Internal Medicine is also grateful to Dr. Hegeman, who has once again stepped into an interim role, after serving as Director of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension for nearly five years.

The Department will miss Dr. Hightower, who has done so much to transform our institution’s working relationship with technology. Her enthusiasm for the possibilities it holds for our research, for our clinical practice, and for the way we educate is infectious, and it is our hope that Dr. Hightower’s belief in our ability to make our systems work for us will persist here long after she takes her leave of Iowa. We wish her well in Utah.

Please plan to attend the farewell reception being held for Dr. Hightower on Friday, January 4.