Antonio Marin Knows IT Can Be a Lifeline When Seconds Count

Antonio Marin, chief information officer at US Med-Equip (USME), isn’t one to claim the spotlight—even after his IT team won back-to-back CIO 100 awards. For Marin, it’s not about the accolades. It’s about helping hospitals and their patients get the lifesaving equipment they need—fast.

“This work is personal to me,” Marin says. “I walk the halls at USME and see the same equipment that kept my son alive.”

Thirty-one years ago, Marin’s son was born prematurely, weighing just one pound. For four and a half months, he remained in the neonatal ICU at Texas Children’s Hospital. The experience left a mark.

“I know firsthand what it’s like to need the right care and the right equipment at the right time,” Marin says. “That’s what we help hospitals do every day.”

Since joining USME in 2022, Marin has led a transformation of the company’s IT systems to better support hospitals nationwide. The Houston-based company partners with hospitals and health systems to provide medical equipment rentals and services when they need it most.

Marin was hired in the middle of a system overhaul—a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform to streamline hospital equipment rentals. Weeks later, the company announced a major acquisition that expanded its services to include beds and therapeutic support surfaces.

“Our platform wasn’t built for a major change like this,” Marin says. “But our team pulled together, and within thirty days, we had integrated the systems and united two companies into one.”

Within one hundred twenty days, the newly combined business was fully operational on the new IT platform, thanks to around-the-clock development work by Marin’s team.

Then came feedback from hospitals and clinicians: nurses wanted a way to place equipment orders directly from within their own electronic medical record (EMR) systems—without leaving the bedside.

Marin’s team built a solution that lets clinicians send orders with a single click from any EMR platform so they can get back to their patients faster.

“Antonio’s leadership and relentless pursuit of innovation have been instrumental in our continued growth and ability to serve hospitals and healthcare providers with life-saving medical equipment when and where they need it most,” says Greg Salario, US Med-Equip’s CEO.

Meg Toups, founder and CEO of IT company BlueSky, agrees. “Antonio is a forward-thinking CIO. I have witnessed exceptional leadership that combines strategic vision, mentorship, and innovation throughout his career,” she says. “His commitment to nurturing talent has not only resulted in better outcomes at US Med-Equip but has positively accelerated the careers of those who have worked under his guidance. As a partner of US Med-Equip, Antonio has been forthcoming with his goals and supportive for BlueSky to offer out services. It’s truly a partnership, and I’m so grateful to have Antonio in my corner!”

This innovation helped USME earn the CIO 100 Award in 2024. This year, the company won again—this time for migrating its systems to ServiceNow’s scalable healthcare platform. The transition was driven by the increased demand for USME’s medical equipment and services from hospitals nationwide. The fast-growing company expanded from sixty-five to ninety locations in three years, and the company now supports millions of equipment transactions across the country.

“We know where every piece of equipment is at any moment—and so do our hospital partners,” Marin says. “That visibility and speed help hospitals focus on patient care, not logistics.”

It’s the unseen systems that sometimes make the biggest difference. In one case, a baby in McAllen, Texas, urgently needed a ventilator. A USME associate rushed to deliver it racing down the highway at 100 mph with a police escort. When he arrived, the nurse was performing chest compressions.

“I think of the IT systems that made that possible—our order intake, logistics, communication tools,” Marin says. “People don’t usually think about IT when they talk about saving lives, but we’re part of that process. And there’s no better feeling.”

Marin has led technology teams in retail, oil and gas, and waste management, but says no role has felt as meaningful as this. “I don’t work in a hospital, but I get to help hospitals care for their patients,” he says. “We get to be a part of saving lives.”