For most of my career, I’ve been on the provider side of the table. CIO roles, board positions, digital transformation work, building teams, navigating budgets, solving workflow issues — that was my world. I never once pictured myself joining the vendor side. In fact, many of us jokingly call it “the dark side” of healthcare IT.
But here I am. And there’s a reason for it.
After spending years wishing technology partners would show up differently, I finally met a team that was ready to do the same kind of listening, learning, and partnering that I always wanted as a CIO. That company was Citrix.
As such, I am starting this blog series to share my journey, and I want to explain why I made the jump and why I believe this new approach can genuinely help healthcare leaders — CEOs, CFOs, boards, CMOs, CDIOs, CIOs, CISOs, CNIOs, CMIOs, and everyone trying to hold healthcare together right now.
Anyone reading this already knows the truth: healthcare isn’t facing one challenge — it’s facing ten at once.
Sinking quality and patient engagement scores.
Workforce shortages, “Silver Tsunami”.
Burnout.
Thin or negative margins.
Cyberattacks that never seem to stop.
New regulations every few months.
Consumer expectations that rise faster than budgets.
Mergers and acquisitions that need technology to work instantly, with zero downtime: no slowing down in sight.
And on top of all that, we’re expected to deliver a better experience for patients and clinicians while navigating the triple aim, then the quadruple aim, and now the quintuple aim.
It’s overwhelming, and I say that from lived experience — not theory.
Technology isn’t a “nice to have” anymore. It’s the backbone that keeps hospitals moving. When it fails, everything else suffers — quality scores, throughput, safety, staff satisfaction, even financial performance.
We’re entering a stretch where stability, security, and predictability are going to matter even more than innovation. Healthcare leaders need partners who actually understand that.
That’s what I was looking for, someone who cared about the long game and not the next renewal cycle.
When Citrix first approached me, my instinct was, “There’s no way I’m going to the vendor side.” I enjoyed being a CIO. I liked solving hard problems with teams I trusted. And I’d worked with enough vendors to know that some of them disappear the minute the contract is signed.
But I agreed to talk — mostly out of curiosity.
What surprised me most wasn’t a pitch about products or technology. It was the way they talked about rebuilding trust with healthcare. They didn’t pretend to have everything perfect. They didn’t try to gloss over the past. They asked real, direct questions:
“How do we become a better partner to healthcare?”
“What do CIOs truly struggle with?”
“What would it take to restore confidence?”
That caught my attention.
Then they talked about investing in a new healthcare-focused approach — one where the relationship matters just as much as the technology itself. They wanted someone from the industry, someone who had been in the trenches, to help shape where this goes.
And that’s where things shifted for me.
Looking back on my years leading IT in healthcare, I can tell you exactly what I wished I had from a partner:
Citrix told me directly that this — all of this — is what they want to build.
And more importantly, they showed me they meant it.
Even though I’m still very new, these first six weeks have been eye-opening. A few things stood out right away:
My role is to bring the voice of healthcare into every conversation — engineering, product direction, customer strategy, and executive leadership.
I’m here to make sure we show up the way healthcare needs us to:
What excites me most is that Citrix is willing to do the hard work alongside its customers — not just hand over software and walk away.
Even when the answer isn’t immediate, the commitment to work with providers to find the right solution is very real.
This blog series will share what I’m learning, what we’re improving, and how Citrix plans to support healthcare organizations during one of the most intense and uncertain periods in the industry’s history.
I didn’t leave the CIO seat to join “the dark side.” I came here because I saw a company ready to step back into the light — alongside the people who deliver care every day.
If we get this right, we won’t just support healthcare. We’ll help it move forward.
And I’m honored to be part of that work.
Follow Cletis on LinkedIn.
Cletis Earle is Citrix's Healthcare Field Chief Technology Officer.
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