Jason Nagels: Advancing Access for Better Patient Care

Jason Nagels, Certified Imaging Information Professional (CIIP), PMP, is an educator, advocate, and leader in the imaging informatics profession located in Ontario, Canada. Through his consulting company, he provides strategic guidance to health care providers, health authorities, and vendors while delivering training on industry tools, standards, and IIP exam preparation. Nagels is the 2026 Excellence in Imaging Informatics Award winner in the CIIP category, presented by the American Board of Imaging Informatics (ABII).

When Nagels talks about the importance of high-quality imaging informatics, he makes sure to cite the quantitative impact: the reduced numbers of repeat imaging, time spent in appointments by patients and health care professionals, and toll on health care systems.

But it’s the qualitative side that has driven the ABII Award winner’s dynamic career in the field. “It’s that kind of detail that doesn’t go on a white paper as easily,” says Nagels, sharing an example from a clinician whose patient had forgotten her imaging records at home. “She comes in frazzled: she’s a single mother, she’s dealing with cancer, she makes it all the way into the city to her appointment, and the clinician was able to pull her records up, so she doesn’t have to get re-imaged or go back home without care.”

Nagels himself had a first-hand view into the patient experience with his mother’s cancer diagnosis in 2004, and that qualitative impact inspired his interest in a career in imaging informatics. When working on an Ontario health information exchange in 2008, he happened to work on the clinical support system for the same type of cancer his mother had. “That was when I started truly identifying my journey as imaging informatics,” says Nagels. “That personal connection is another example of qualitative impact that hits hard for me. It was a full-circle moment that reinforced the importance of what we’re doing.”

Leading Beyond the Workplace

That dedication to advancing access is a throughline in Nagels’ two decades in the field. Over the course of his career, he’s been an active volunteer on initiatives such as Canada’s federal Infoway initiative, which worked to digitize data and improve interoperability across all provinces and territories. As a RAD-AID Global Ambassador with the Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM), Nagels has volunteered internationally as well, supporting the installation of a radiology information system at a hospital in Ghana and helping a Nepal site with training and workflow improvements in their new PACS system. This is on top of his contributions to numerous other SIIM groups, including the Healthcare Information and Management Systems data standardization workgroup, the SIIM education committee, and the SIIMCast podcast, which he’s co-hosted since 2018.

A Champion for Excellence

After 14 years in a variety of imaging informatics roles at Hospital Diagnostic Imaging Repository Services (HDIRS), Nagels moved to consulting work and has provided training and consulting to health care organizations and individuals since 2022. He developed an educational platform for professionals all along their career journey, everywhere from people just entering the field to seasoned informaticists earning continued education credits. He offers courses that teach technical imaging standards and industry systems and a workshop that helps informaticists study for the IIP exam.

Nagels’ commitment to access goes hand-in-hand with his advocacy for excellence in the profession and underscores his selection as ABII’s 2026 CIIP award winner. “I’m passionate about education because it gives me the opportunity to help people,” he says. “Whether someone is just entering the field or pursuing their CIIP credential, I enjoy supporting their professional growth.”