Mandy Halford, MD, serves as the Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) for Covenant Health. She served as the health system’s Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Informatics Officer for eight years before being named CMO in 2023.

Dr. Halford has served in many healthcare leadership roles throughout her career and is well-known as an innovative and passionate physician executive. She provides medical leadership across the healthcare delivery system and oversees clinical informatics, virtual care and consumerism.

Dr. Halford’s role as CMIO combined her medical knowledge and technology expertise to improve care for Covenant Health patients through strategic use of information technology and digital advances. Dr. Halford has been nationally recognized several times by Becker’s Hospital Review’s, including the 2023 lists of “116 Women in Health IT to Know,” “130 Hospital and Health System CMOs to Know” and “56 Hospital and Health System CMIOs to Know.”

In her role as chief medical officer, Dr. Halford is responsible for championing quality improvement efforts across the system, driving strategic planning and managing resources to ensure the delivery of high-quality services. She is the primary liaison for Covenant Health’s communication and interactions with more than 1,500 affiliated physicians. Her CMO role includes developing clinical protocols, influencing policy formation, supporting physician recruitment and development, and ensuring patient safety and regulatory compliance.

Before 2016, Dr. Halford served as Covenant Health’s medical director of clinical documentation and informatics. Dr. Halford joined Covenant Health in 2009 as a practicing medical doctor and physician leader at Cumberland Medical Center, one of Covenant Health’s member hospitals. She served five years in physician leadership roles at Cumberland Medical Center including as CMO of the hospital.

Dr. Halford is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and holds a clinical informatics certification from the American Board of Preventive Medicine. She was named to the 2020 Class of Nashville Health Care Council (NHCC) Fellows. The NHCC Fellows Alumni Group convenes the industry’s top minds for collaboration to help address the challenges facing the nation’s health care system and works to improve the health of patients in local communities.

Dr. Halford received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tennessee, College of Medicine. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, also from the University of Tennessee.

Why I work for Covenant Health:

“As an East Tennessee native, I want to improve healthcare for patients in our region. I believe in Covenant Health’s pledge of putting patients first, as well as in the system’s leadership, staff and personal commitments to excellence in all that we do.”