Claude J. Pirtle, MD, MBA, MSACI, FACP, FAMIA, serves as the Interim Executive Director and Chief Digital and Informatics Officer of Heartland Whole Health Institute.

Prior to Heartland Whole Health Institute and Walmart Health, Dr. Pirtle served as the Vice President - Chief Medical Information Officer for West Tennessee Healthcare and Assistant Chief Medical Officer of Jackson Madison County General Hospital, a 792-bed tertiary hospital in Tennessee. In these roles, he co-led a complete enterprise ambulatory Epic conversion, implemented a system-wide telehealth and remote monitoring program, and led teams to redefine healthcare in a proactive and holistic approach. He also served as the Medical Director and Performance Improvement Committee Chair for the Connected Care of West Tennessee Accountable Care Organization (ACO). 

Dr. Pirtle earned his Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Louisiana State University with a minor in both chemistry and psychology. He earned his medical doctorate at Louisiana State University Health and Science Center (LSUHSC) in New Orleans, LA and completed his internal medicine residency also at LSUHSC. Dr. Pirtle completed his clinical informatics fellowship and a Master of Science in Applied Clinical Informatics from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Pirtle is board certified in internal medicine and clinical informatics. He also serves on the Board of Directors of QSource and was the Lead Clinical Advisor to Tactuum. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association. 

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Twitter: @cpirtlemd

Process Improvement and Operations Associate Director

HealthIT Program Management Office (PMO)

Chad A. Dorn, PSM, has worked in healthcare, with a focus on data analysis and database development, for over fifteen years. His work within the biomedical informatics Center for Improving the Public's Health through Informatics (CIPHI) research group includes contributions to projects focused on cardiac care, acute kidney injury, rural health, prescribing feedback, and computable phenotypes. His prior work includes activities related to healthcare quality improvement and patient safety. He has earned a master’s degree in Computer Science and Quantitative Methods and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

Chad has contributed to the following publications:

• Development of Electronic Health Record–Based Prediction Models for 30-Day Readmission Risk Among Patients Hospitalized for Acute Myocardial Infarction | Acute Coronary Syndromes | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network
• Identifying Potential Therapeutic Applications and Diagnostic Harms of Increased Bilirubin Concentrations: A Clinical and Genetic Approach - Zanussi - 2022 - Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics - Wiley Online Library
• Information Extraction From Electronic Health Records to Predict Readmission Following Acute Myocardial Infarction: Does Natural Language Processing Using Clinical Notes Improve Prediction of Readmission? | Journal of the American Heart Association (ahajournals.org)
• Validating a Computable Phenotype for Nephrotic Syndrome in Children and Adults Using PCORnet Data | American Society of Nephrology (asnjournals.org)
• Proton-pump inhibitor use is not associated with severe COVID-19-related outcomes: a propensity score-weighted analysis of a national veteran cohort | Gut (bmj.com)