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20 Hartford Business Journal • May 6, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com 20 Hartford Business Journal • May 6, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com C-SUITE AWARDS 2019 Cigna's Boxer uses technology to tackle healthcare challenges By John Stearns Special to the Hartford Business Journal A s a public health profes- sional and technologist, Mark Boxer firmly be- lieves technology holds the key to solving many of the challenges in health care. Boxer — executive vice president and chief information officer at Cigna, where he oversees the Bloomfield in- surer's worldwide technology strategy, digital capabilities and venture inno- vation fund — cited a New York Times headline, "Hospital fees hit the middle class hard," from 1924. That could have been written today, he said. "Unless we really leverage data and analytics and technology in a smart way, we're going to be writing that same headline a hundred years from now," said Boxer, whose academic credentials include doctorates in health administration and global public health, a master's in information sys- tems, an MBA and has been recognized by Insurance & Technology magazine as one of its "Elite Eight" technologists. The healthcare ecosystem is frag- mented and cost doesn't equal quality, he said, but technology can help create a better, more personalized experience for consumers, more affordability, and better outcomes and higher quality. Boxer be- lieves removing fragmented challenges in health care means getting technology right and suggests Cigna has a leg up. Health care is becoming more retail- CATEGORY: CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER OF THE YEAR Mark Boxer Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, Cigna Size of organization: 74,000+ employees worldwide Education: Medical University of South Carolina, Ph.D. in health administration; Arizona's School of Health Sciences, Ph.D. in global public health. Previous job: Group President, Government Healthcare at Xerox and Deputy Global CIO for the Xerox Corp. "The pace of change nowadays in health care and technology is staggering; to fall behind is to lose your competitive advantage." PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED