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 a leader in research, education, patient care, advocacy and innovation, Cincinnati Children’s is ranked #1 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-2024 list of best children’s hospitals in the nation and is the #2 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, and Research IT.

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 the data center that supports 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.

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 degree in business from the University of Cincinnati. Johnston is a trustee on the Tri-State PHO Board and Fortinet Healthcare Advisory Board and has also been a board member for CBTS Advisory Board and HealthBridge. 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).