The chief medical information officer position is a relatively new role for many hospitals and health systems. However, even in such a short time, the role has begun to see numerous changes as the industry works to adapt to the evolving healthcare landscape.
Stanley Sinkford III, MD, vice president of medical affairs for Allscripts, and Maulik Purohit, MD, senior vice president and CMIO of University Health System in San Antonio, spoke about the CMIO's evolving role during a Sept. 21 panel at the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference, which took place Sept. 19-22 in Chicago.
Here are three takeaways from the panel:
1. Dr. Purohit said: "One key element is the ability to communicate in a way that persuades someone to do what they need to do because it's better for the organization. It may not be better for the individual, but it's better for the organization as a whole. That's a hard sell sometimes because it may be more work for the individual."
2. According to Dr. Sinkford, the CMIO role was created as a way to "bridge the gap between the IT and medical staffs."
"I look at [the CMIO role] like a wheel, if you will, with patient safety being the hub of that wheel, and spokes that come off of that hub to keep that wheel moving. Different pieces of that wheel all touch each other and flow back and forth with one another in various ways. My four biggest spokes are physician satisfaction, better outcomes, cost savings and EMR optimization. … My job is to dig deeper into those different aspects," he added.
3. "There's not really a formal training for the CMIO role. It's more what you bring to the role and your experience," Dr. Purohit said, adding that the role "is really more of a combination of what organization you're at and [the skills] the individual brings to that organization."