Consulting Magazine - April 2020

INTHE

Laura Kreofsky launched her career in health technology some 27 years ago and is a recognized leader in herfield. Her broad expertise andinfluence includes: IT strategicplanning, EHR & enterprise system planning & implementation,ITIL/ITSM process optimization,mergers & acquisition execution,and health IT regulations and policy. Today she is a Vice President,Advisory, Pivot Point Consultingand is passionate about ensuringhealth IT is an industry wherewomen can thrive.

“I was working in operations for
a health plan and helping design a
health record database; my boss/
mentor told me ‘Laura, healthcare
IT is really the way to go,’” she
says. “I trusted her and thought IT
was pretty interesting so I took the
leap. I was an early entrant to the
field (especially for a woman) and
it’s been a great ride so far.”
Over her career, she has led ad-
vanced IT initiatives for clients in
the private and public sectors at
organizations including Kaiser Per-
manente, Stanford Healthcare, the
Wisconsin Department of Health
and MediClinic, South Africa. Her
clients praise her expertise and ex-
ceptional delivery skills and trust her
acumen, integrity and leadership.

“The intellectual challenge of
translating and aligning business
strategy, technology evolution, and
increasingly complex regulations—
in ever-changing client environ-
ments,” Kreofsky says. Focusing
her expertise on the regulatory is-
sues facing the Healthcare IT in-
dustry is what excites her over the
next 12 months, she says. “The data
privacy and interoperability rules
are complex and will require deep
understanding and expertise.”
Kreofsky also serves on the
Oregon HIMSS Board, promoting
inclusive events and encouraging
the participation of female pro-
fessionals. Additionally, she leads
a women in health IT networking
group in Portland, Oregon.

“I wish, early in my education/
career, I’d had the confidence to
delve deeper into computer pro-
gramming and IT, but I lacked the
confidence,” she says. “Over the
last 25-plus years I’ve made up
for that with a lot of self-learning,
and more importantly, a lot of great
smarter-than-me colleagues who’ve
shared their technical expertise to
help me learn on the fly.”
To that end, she says she received
some great advice early in her ca-
reer from a female colleague at a
Big 5 consulting firm: “Never sur-
prise your boss—the client and / or
the one that signs your paycheck.”
As far as winning Consulting’s
Women Leaders in Technology
award, Kreofsky says that it’s an
honor. “I see it as a hallmark of
my tenure in consulting, my pas-
sion for healthcare and technology,
and my commitment to and pleas-
ure I receive in opening doors and
sustaining relationships with other
women in this field.”