Speakers bios
Joe Pleasant, Jr., FHIMSS
Chief Information Officer
Senior Vice President
In his present role, Pleasant oversees Premier’s information systems infrastructure that includes legacy, enterprise, and Web-enabled offerings.
Prior to that, Pleasant served as chief administrative officer of SunHealth, Inc., one of Premier’s predecessor organizations. During his 25 years with SunHealth, Pleasant held numerous positions that included senior management consultant, relationship manager for owners in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, senior Human Resources executive and CIO.
Pleasant is a leading industry expert and proponent of a unique device identification system (UDI) for medical devices and products, much like the existing system for pharmaceuticals. He has worked extensively with all participants in the supply chain – from providers to distributors and manufacturers – in efforts to move the industry toward a universal product numbering system.
Pleasant is past chairman and a founding member of the Coalition for Healthcare eStandards (CHeS), a fellow member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and a founding member of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME.
Pleasant is involved in national efforts to improve the health care supply chain and serves on the boards of the National Alliance for Healthcare Information Technology (NAHIT) and GS1 and is a member of the Health Industry Distributors Association’s Supply Chain Advisory Council. He also is past president of the North Carolina Chapter of HIMSS and chaired HIMSS’ 2006 Annual Conference Education Committee.
Pleasant is a cum laude engineering graduate of North Carolina State University and holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina.