Tony Johnston

Tony L. Johnston is senior vice president for information services and chief information officer at Cincinnati Children’s, a nonprofit, comprehensive pediatric health system. As the leader in improving child health, Cincinnati Children's pushes the boundaries of what's possible in research, clinical care, education and innovation, so that every child can live their best possible life. The organization is consistently named one of the top 3 pediatric hospitals in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll, and is the #3 recipient of pediatric research grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Johnston is responsible for all IT operations, digital strategy, enterprise data and analytics, telecommunications, clinical engineering, interactive services, health information management, telehealth, medical and nursing informatics, cyber security, and research IT. With over 30 years of experience in pediatric health IT leadership, Johnston has been instrumental in positioning Cincinnati Children’s as a national leader in digital innovation. 

Prior to his promotion to CIO, as chief technology officer, Johnston oversaw the growth of his departments and participated in the preparation of four institutional strategic plans. He also co-led the selection, installation and implementation of the health system’s integrated electronic health record (Epic), and he designed and oversaw the construction of multiple data centers that support the technology infrastructure at all Cincinnati Children’s campuses and locations. More recently, Johnston co-created the first augmented reality/virtual reality training center in the world housed within a hospital. He also co-developed the health system’s AI literacy curriculum, ensuring that every employee gains proficiency in emerging technologies.    

Johnston has a master’s degree in information systems from Wright State University, a bachelor’s degree in information technology from Colorado Technical University, and an associate's degree in business from the University of Cincinnati. Johnston is a trustee on the Tri-State Child Health Services Board, Fortinet Healthcare Advisory Board, and Dell Technologies Healthcare and Life Sciences Advisory Board. He has also been a board member for HealthBridge and for CBTS Advisory Board. Johnston currently holds professional memberships in the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), the Association of the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), and the Scottsdale Institute. 

Becker’s Hospital Review named Johnston one of 14 hospital and health system chief technology officers to know. Under his leadership, Cincinnati Children’s ranked in the InformationWeek Top 250 Innovators, being named #1 in healthcare and #2 overall in 2009 and has maintained a listing in the InformationWeek 500 since 2006. Cincinnati Children’s also received CHIME’s Digital Health Most Wired distinction from 2011–2022 and received a HIMSS Stage 7 Award (awarded continually for both inpatient and ambulatory since 2013).