CHIME names MedStar Health CIO Scott MacLean its 2027 Digital Health Leader of the Year

CHIME named Scott MacLean, senior vice president and CIO of MedStar Health, its 2027 Digital Health Leader of the Year on the main stage of the CHIME26 Fall Forum in Denver. Last year’s recipient, Sheree McFarland, presented the award, with CHIME co-founder and first board chair John Glaser alongside her. The award goes each year to a leader with a sustained record in healthcare technology whose influence reaches past their own organization. A committee of past honorees picks the recipient, and the CHIME Board of Trustees approves the choice.

MacLean’s health IT work started at Mass General Brigham, where he contributed to chemotherapy order entry software developed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute after a sentinel event there. That work shaped oncology capabilities in the EHR platform before Mass General Brigham went live in 2015, and the vendor’s other customers later gained access to them. His career began at General Electric and ran through roles as director of clinical systems at Dana-Farber, CIO of Newton-Wellesley Hospital and deputy CIO and vice president of IS operations at Mass General Brigham before he joined MedStar.

At MedStar, he oversees information services and clinical engineering and has led enterprise modernization and the rollout of emerging technologies while putting weight on developing the next wave of digital health leaders. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University and an MBA in healthcare management from Boston University, and he is a CHIME Certified Healthcare CIO and Lifetime Fellow of CHIME.

He has chaired the CHIME Board of Trustees, the CHIME Foundation Board of Directors and the CHIME Policy Steering Committee. He also chairs the board of CRISP Shared Services, Maryland’s health information exchange, and previously chaired the HIMSS board. In April 2024, as CHIME board chair, he testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health at its hearing on health sector cybersecurity after the Change Healthcare attack, where he called it “the most massive cyberattack on our sector to date” and pressed for federal support for small and rural providers.

“Scott represents the kind of leadership this award was created to recognize,” said Jonathan L. Manis, CHIME board chair. MacLean said the award carries extra meaning because “so many people I have admired and learned from throughout my career have received this award,” adding that technology’s potential in care “will depend on the next generation of health IT professionals.”