Meet Asante’s incoming chief information officer

When it was time to find a new chief to head Asante Information Technology Services, Asante didn’t have to look far.

The right candidate — someone with health care, senior leadership, operations and technology experience — was already working at at Asante just a few miles away at ATRMC.

And so it is that David Kinyon, current vice president of Operations at ATRMC, has been named the system’s senior vice president and chief information officer. He succeeds Lee Milligan, MD, who will leave Asante in July for an executive position in the Midwest.

Kinyon brings 35 years of experience to his new role, having served in a variety of leadership functions in which operations and technology aligned.

“David is a skilled administrator with a deep knowledge of leading teams,” said CEO Scott Kelly in announcing Kinyon’s new role. He will lead the ITS department’s 17 service groups and approximately 300 employees.

Kinyon joined Asante Three Rivers in 1987 as an imaging tech and rose through the ranks to become a systemwide imaging project manager, imaging informatics manager, operational informatics director and outpatient services administrator. He was named ATRMC’s operations VP in 2012.

During his tenure, he led a variety of systemwide committees and played a pivotal role in large-scale projects such as the building of the Asante Outpatient Center and the expansions of ATRMC’s Emergency Department and Helen K. Spears Cancer Center.

From an IT perspective, David was instrumental in the systemwide selection, installation and implementation of PACS, a picture archiving and communication system that eliminated the need for film, dark rooms and film file rooms for imaging.

When COVID-19 forced the cancellation of all nonemergent outpatient services and procedures, Kinyon worked with former ARRMC Operations VP Kristi Blackhurst to oversee logistics during the pandemic and then worked to rapidly restore outpatient services as COVID cases decreased.

Over the years, Kinyon has gained a reputation for being a strategic thinker and a thoughtful, encouraging mentor who helps others to grow in their profession.

“I truly value how much he cares about Asante, his team, the communities we serve and the entire workforce,” said Win Howard, ATRMC chief executive who has worked with Kinyon for nearly 20 years. “David has created an environment within his team that promotes true psychological safety. This has driven higher levels of engagement, the ability for people to learn and develop.”

Kinyon has always loved technology. As a child, he and his brother saved money from their paper routes to buy a Radio Shack TRS 80 Model 1 PC. It used a cassette tape for the storage hard drive. He can be counted on to have the latest electronic toys such as drones, Oculus-VR and Apple gear.

“When I started here in 2002, David was one of the panelists who interviewed me. He asked me to describe my home computer system,” Howard recalls with amusement. “At the time I had three PCs, so I described the size of the hard drives, memory, monitor and the software on each of them. In my mind, I nailed the question. Later, when David reported to me, I asked him how well I answered the question. He said, ‘It was OK, but not great.’ I’ll never forget that.”

In his new role, Kinyon is looking forward to working with the IT team to continue to enhance patient care and improve staff and provider workflows through the use of technology.

He lives in Grants Pass with his wife of 28 years, Jeanie Kinyon. The couple has two children and four adored grandchildren. In his spare time, Kinyon enjoys spending time with family, taking his dog for long explorative walks, the outdoors, gardening, road trips, cooking, flying drones and time at the Coast.